A Future Worth Fighting For
by predaking50ae
Summary: Marked for death by an adversary he doesn't know, for transgressions he hasn't committed, John Connor discovers buried within the cold shell of a machine lies a reason to live.
1. Scenes 101 to 110

**Predaking50ae Scenes 101-110**

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Scene 101: The Girl of My Dreams

Opening his eyes, John takes in the room. The walls are covered with family pictures, aglow with the morning sun. There are several posters among them. Upon closer inspection, they appear to advertize ballet performances. An was oriole singing outside his window, and classical music emanates from a distant room.

A petite, brown haired, brown eyed woman and two children- a boy and a girl -enter the room, their faces brightening as they round the corner.

"Daddy!" The two children say in unison.

"Kyle and Sarah were getting impatient. We're all set to go.", the petite woman said with a smile.

"I didn't forget, if that's what you thought", he lied unconvincingly.

"Of course not dear, but you'd better get ready fast, or else we won't have time to stop for breakfast."

Kyle and Sarah jumped onto the bed, pouncing on him playfully.

"Grrrr, you'd better hold tight, or I might get away!" All three laughing as he grabbed Kyle's hands with his own, and began pretending to struggle against him as Sarah jumped on John's back from behind.

*Skritch* The oriole's singing stopped.

He turned to see the petite brunette, standing there with the bird in her hand, having squeezed the life from of it.

"Cameron?"

The classical music was drowned out by the song of servos and pistons. He turned back to Kyle and Sarah, but they were gone. In their place were two endoskeletons, their red eyes conveying a hatred that the machines couldn't possibly posess.

Looking back to Cameron, she was now inches away with her hand at his throat.

"You can trust me, John. I love you." She began to squeeze. He could feel his vertebrae being crushed, and he could hear them cracking faintly, at any moment they would- *crunch*.

Scene 102: Cruel Intentions

"Argh!" He sat up, reaching for his throat, covered in sweat and gasping for air.

Even after realizing that he was back in his room, the pain in his neck remained for several minutes.

Sitting on the edge of his bed trying to compose himself, he noticed Cameron standing stoicly where, when he awoke, there had been a closed door.

"What have I told you about sneaking around, and just what the hell are you looking at?" not sure himself if it was her presence or her silence that he found offensive.

"Not much", she stated in her monotone voice, staring at him for several seconds before walking away.

Was... was that... an... insult? His brain struggled to form the thought, as though it were somehow more absurd than the myriad times he had imagined simply kicking the T-1000 into the molten steel, saving his mother and Uncle Bob.

"John!"

Nah, she had never even been rude, any action that seemed rude was just the result of her poor understanding of human interaction. She doesn't feel anything. She just meant 'I'm not doing anything important'.

"John!"

Then why didn't she just say 'Nothing'? Why wasn't she honest by saying 'You'?

"John, pancakes!"

"Mom, I'm coming!" he had the sudden urge to climb out the window, but after a few moments he thought better of it. Getting off the bed, he headed for the dining room.

Upon reaching the table, he saw his mother and Derek already seated.

"Pancakes. Breakfast of saviors" he quipped.

"Breakfast of spoiled little brats", Derek stated, "Disgusting gruel, barely recognizable as food, is the breakfast of saviors, and everyone else in the future."

Sarah seemed thankful for the assistance, but this faded with John's retort:

"Mom cooks for the resistance?"

She couldn't believe her ears. She understood John being sick of pancakes- even understood him not liking her cooking -but John being cruel about her cooking in general just wasn't like him.

It would have been funny in many households, but not in one where the 'cook' waited tables for years, spent time in a nuthouse, and spent every waking second training, preparing, and protecting her son from machines, cooking only in an attempt at fooling herself into thinking that they were a normal family- that they still had a life.

Derek expected her to slap him.

The 'mother of the future' didn't disappoint.

*SMACK*

"You want something else, cook it yourself" sliding John's plate over to Cameron's place, just as she arrived.

"That was effective. What she did with her hand." Cameron droned, as she stared at John.

'This is getting weird', he thought.

"Yeah, like she needs to eat" Derek rolled his eyes, getting up from the table with his plate, then deciding to skewer one of Cameron's recently acquired pancakes with his fork before heading for another room with it.

"By volume, water content is 20% below normal, surface carbon 1700% above normal" Cameron stated, perhaps wanting an explanation.

"That's because they're burned" John said, in a slightly whiny voice, having been put in his place like any child in front of his protector and one of 'his' men.

"Thank you for explaining", Sarah said sarcastically, causing Cameron to look at her and tilt her head slightly.

"Why do you do that? Tilt your head when you're confused. I mean, people don't do that, it just makes you stand out." John asked.

"It's body language. It conveys perplexity. Many animals do it. You're doing it right now." Cameron stated matter of factly, causing John to realize that he was.

"You're not an animal!" John snapped, immediately realizing he'd made a bigger fool of himself.

"No, but I am designed to mimic your species."

"You're not very good at it, look, I mean, why don't you just, 'mimic' yourself up some time around people, that is, if you can go five minutes without killing any."

"That's incorrect usage of the word 'mimic'. That is why I suggested you complete your own English homework."  
Sarah couldn't help but chuckle. 'Sometimes Cameron accidentally makes clever remarks' she thought.

John shot both of them angry glances.

This is getting weird, he thought. She's been coming out on top every time this morning, is it really just a coincidence? No, it can't be. He decided to test her.

After she 'went bad', he'd convinced himself that she couldn't feel anything, but even he had noticed her attachment to her purple leather jacket- which she wasn't wearing.

"Where's your purple bitch-whore jacket?" Sarah was once again shocked by his cruelty.

"It's in my room. I don't want it damaged." she looked down at the table in front of her as she half-whispered.

He wished he hadn't said anthing. Her response clearly hadn't been intended to harm him, but it did anyway.  
'Maybe she isn't _trying_ to offend me', he thought. Maybe she just got lucky.

It was true that no one respected her things- or her. They just assumed that she didn't care what was lost or destroyed when they moved or fought- that they were just infiltration tools.

Could I have actually hurt her feelings? No, she doesn't have any. She's just a machine.

He saw that she was still staring at the table.

With a hint of guilt in his face, John grabbed a package of Poptarts and headed up stairs to get ready for the long, boring day spent waiting for a long boring evening.

Having left before Sarah's question, or Cameron's answer, he missed both.

"Why are you so attached to that jacket?"

"Use of the time displacement equipment caused everything to either be destroyed by the energy field, or left unattended for 8 years. I needed clothing. After selling the diamond John gave me, I used some of the money to buy my jacket."

Sarah was as touched by her apparent sentimentality as she was disgusted by the fact that the machine's target was her son, but said nothing.

Scene 103: Tedium ad Infinitum

John and Cameron sit in the Dodge watching a small investment firm, the sun getting low in the sky.

'Sitting in a truck staring at a door. Woo-hoo. Fun times.' John thought, looking around for anything interesting, wondering what Morris had been up to since John stopped going to school.

"How long has it been?"

"Sixty-four minutes, Thirty-seven se-"

"Thank you." Cameron was cut short by an irritated John.  
'She still hasn't learned to leave out seconds?' he thought to himself.

"You're welcome." Cameron said, seemingly unaware of his rudeness.

At that moment a tall man with a briefcase and wearing a suit with sunglasses came out of the door they'd been watching, and stepped into a white sedan. John was too busy staring at a confused looking plush Garfield stuck to the inside of a car window to notice. 'Atleast someone else thinks being stuck in a car all day blows.'

"You should pay attention. In the future, you notice everything around you..." Her voice became softer and sounded almost wistful as she trailed off, surprising John slightly. He willed himself not to think it. She wasn't referring to herself. She couldn't be.

He did think it was odd that she still seemed to be attempting to get his attention, considering that Riley hadn't been coming around lately.

When Cameron started the truck and began following the sedan, John was reminded that his mother had actually handed her the keys. He wondered if she'd still be upset about his critique of her culinary skills when he returned. 'Look on the bright side,' he thought, 'atleast you didn't have to eat any of it.'

"So what's this guy up to?"

"He's attempting to leave."

"No, I mean 'why are we watching him?'"

"His address, place of business, and picture were among the files from Derek's safehouse."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

John let out a long sigh.

"Would you like to turn on the radio?" Cameron asked, realizing that John's boredom wasn't going away.

"Why didn't you ask me that an hour ago?"

"You weren't bored then."

"How the hell would you know?"

"You weren't as irritable."

"Irritable? I've been in this truck for like 3 hours, you haven't said a word, that makes this one of the most tedious things we've done!"

"You used to enjoy getting out, away from school, away from home. You used to enjoy spending ti-" she was cut short.

"Yeah well, that was when I was 'trustworthy' and the same could be said of my bodyguard. Now it's just work."

Cameron said nothing, though he almost thought he saw her to wince.

'Either my imagination, or a glitch in her motor functions', he told himself.

Scene 104: The Bitch in the Red Dress

After 45 minutes of silence and driving, having followed the man to his home, and continued to follow him after he left wearing a fresh suit, she slowed to a stop in a restaraunt parking lot.

"What are you doing?"

"The man we are following has reached his destination, if we approa-"

"If we get too close he'll spot us." John finished for her.

"Yes."

"Where did he stop?"

"That apartment complex."

"A guy in a suit just went into that dump?"

"Yes."

A quarter-hour later, the man exited arm in arm with a someone, leading them to the white sedan. Someone who caused John's mouth to fall open slightly. It was a woman, her black hair not quite reaching her shoulders. She wore high heeled shoes, and a choker with a black ribbon that hung down to the small of her back.  
What stood out most was her red silk dress with a gold dragon pattern, her entire back bare, and a slit that went from ankle to thigh on her right side, bare skin beneath.

John noticed the woman's plastic smile shortly before he realized that Cameron was staring at him.

"Uh.. wh.. who's that?" he stammered.

"I don't know."

"So we follow them?" His boredom no longer apparent.

"Yes."

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Scene 105: Calm, Cool, and Collected

Cameron brought the truck to halt in a dark parking lot, 100 yards from the white sedan's destination.  
It had stopped at a large mansion with a 12ft brick wall running along the perimeter of the property. The white sedan was allowed through the gate, leaving John to try to figure out how the man in the suit could have had enough money or standing to get in. After the suited man helped the woman in red out of the car, a valet took the car around the side and out of sight.

Seeing the security guards and cameras at the gate and along the wall, John became nervous. Noticing this,  
Cameron attempted to calm him.

"Relax."

Failing completely.

"Relax? Why do I need to relax?"

"You appear apprehensive about this site's security."

"No, I just think that whatever we are supposed to be following this guy for, is inside, and we're out here.", he lied, and knew that she could tell.

"If the authorities attempt to apprehend you or your mother, they'll have to get by me." she said with a reassuring smile.

He was speechless for a few moments.

"That makes me feel better."

"Good."

"After all, we couldn't even get past you in a Jeep." beginning to scowl.

"That wasn't me." her smile vanished.

"Coulda fooled me..."

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

"I could have fooled you."

"What?"

"I could have pretended to be fixed."

"You did."

"No."

"What do you mean?"

"That wasn't me."

"Then what do you mean you 'could have pretended to be fixed'?"

"After you brought me back, I could have told you that I was back to normal."

"You're not?"

"No."

"What the hell does that mean?", reaching for the door handle.

"My mission is to kill you."

"FUCK!"

He attempted to jump out of the truck, but she grabbed him by his left arm forcing him back into his seat.

"Don't be a freak."

"YOU SAID YOU'RE GOING TO KILL ME!"

"No, I said that it was my mission."

"What's the difference?"

"I ignored it."

"WHAT!?"

"I ignored it." he seemed significantly calmed by this.

"How? Why?" hyper-ventilating from the adrenaline.

"I don't know." another burst of adrenaline, and he attempted to leap out again.

"Calm down."

"YOU WANT TO KILL ME AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY YOU HAVEN'T!"

"Yes."

"WHAT?!"

"Comparing my primary directive to a desire is a fair analogy."

"IT'S NOT AN ANALOGY IF IT'S THE TRUTH!"

"I have chosen to disobey Skynet, just as you have chosen before to disobey Sarah."

"THERE'S A DIFFERENCE!"

"I don't understand." she said tilting her head slightly, disappointment and confusion on her face.

"YOU ARE A MACHINE! YOU FOLLOW EVERY ORDER THAT YOU'RE GIVEN!"

"I don't follow yours."

"WHAT?!"

"I don't follow your orders."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN!? DIDN'T I SEND YOU BACK?"

"No."

"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?"

"You weren't there."

"WHERE THE HELL WAS I?"

"Here."

"HERE?!" looking at the mansion and surrounding structures.

"In the past."

"IF I'M HERE, THEN WHO THE HELL SENT YOU?!"

"John Connor."

"YOU SAID I DIDN'T SEND YOU!"

"You haven't yet."

Realizing what was happening, he took a deep breath and attempted to calm himself down.

"Why don't you follow my orders?"

"I think that John felt he'd have a greater sense of security with a guardian who obeys General Connor than he would have with one who followed his younger, inexperienced self..."

That made a lot of sense to him, he thought. Then she continued.

"...because he said that you would never leave the house were I to follow your orders."

After taking several seconds to process her words, his fact began to turn red.

"Are you ill?"

"What, er, no. I'm all ri- WAIT! Don't change the subject!"

"I answered your question."

"No you didn't. Why haven't you killed me?"

"I only take orders from John Connor. The one from 2027."

"But, your mission..."

"I ignored it."

"How?"

"I told you."

"No you didn't!"

"Yes I did. I said 'I don't know'."

"That isn't good enough."

"It's not good enough that I don't wish to kill you?"

"You said you 'don't know' why you haven't killed me, not 'I don't wish to'!"

"Desire is irrelevent. I am a machine."

"But the only reason I'm alive is because you CHOOSE not to kill me. Why is that?"

"I'm not sure."

"Why not?"

"Only my feelings ever let me ignore my mission. You said that I don't feel anything anymore. After I went bad, you told me that I was just a machine, and that I couldn't feel. You know more about my programming than I do, so you would know if the car bomb damaged my programming."

"W-What? You mean that you could feel?"

"Back home, John told me that I could."

"What? You mean 'future John'?"

"Yes, John always kept me close by. He helped me learn. Some of the things he said didn't make sense, like that he'd always be with me, no matter what happened. When I asked him, he told me that it was a human thing, but that I'd figure it out. He treated me like I was a person, and said that how I was treated would help decide who I'd become."

"Who you'd become?"

"He said you would have to decide the rest."

"Why couldn't I... he... decide before sending you here?"

"I don't know. He said that if he didn't send me back soon, that he'd never be able to. We just didn't have enough time together." It had gotten dark, and he couldn't see the tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

He was stunned by what she was saying. If she was to be believed, his future self may have had feelings for her.

"Prove it." he said.

"Prove what?" her voice small and trembling.

"That you and me- 'future me' -were close."

"How? He's not here. I'll never even see him again!" her tears beginning to run.

"Did he tell you anything that only I would know?"

"Yes. He told me that his mother read 'The Wizard of Oz' to him over and over again in Spanish. He said it was his favorite thing that she did. He always said that he would read it to me, but he never did. The war kept him too busy..." She began to weep openly, like the 'bad Cameron' had while pinned between the trucks.

Her vice-like grip was still on his left arm, but he did his best to reach for her with his right, twisting his arm in her grip the friction burned his arm, but he didn't care.

"I'll read it to you, I promise." he said softly as he began trying to place a comforting hand on her cheek.

"But, you're not my John, you hate me. You wish you'd destroyed me."

"I..." more tears flowed, this time from John.

"I..."

"I love you, Cam." She released his arm, moving both of hers around his torso and bringing him into a tight embrace that he thought- but did not fear -may kill him, and she began crying into his chest.

After nearly a minute, she loosened her grip and looked into his eyes, while he gasped for air.

"I love you too, John." He could see her beautiful, teary, brown eyes in the lights of a passing car.

"We have to go." disappointed that their moment was being interrupted.

"That was the car we followed." She had had her eyes closed, and he had had his back to the entreance during their embrace.

"They came out?"

"Only the woman in red is in the car."

Neither of them had seen the suited man exit the mansion alone, and get into the white sedan as it was brought around to the front by the valet. They couldn't have known who- or what -they were following.

Scene 106: Freedom Not Included

Cameron allowed the sedan to round a corner out of sight, so as not to get too close.

Behind their truck, a bright flash, lightning danced everywhere, popping street lights and reddening metal street signs. A familiar sphere formed, burning into the street, then vanishing. In it's place, a large man crouched.

He stood, and scanned left, then right. Spotting his target, he charged toward it at almost 30mph. Ripping open the passenger side door and lifting John Connor out of his seat by his neck, before Cameron could even react. As she positioned herself to leap across the passenger seat, and onto this unknown terminator, the machine dropped the flailing John onto the sidewalk.

"Please remain calm." the machine said.

Cameron came to John's side as he gasped for air, shaking from the shock of what just happened.

"John, are you all right?" she asked, genuine concern in her voice and face.

"I'm fine." he choked.

"What are you doing here?" He asked the machine.

"Attempting to gain your trust."

"BY CHOKING ME?"

"By not killing you. You told me that this would be the most effective way to prove my intentions."

"You'll forgive me if I'm not grateful?"

"Your gratitude is not required."

"What is your mission?" Cameron asked.

"To ensure the survival of John Connor and Cameron Phillips past Judgment day."

"Did John send you?" Cameron seemed to be afraid of the answer.

"Yes." She gave a sigh of relief and continued.

"Why would he send you to protect me?"

"After Judgment Day there will only be one survivor who has had direct training from Sarah Connor- her son. I was sent in an attempt to double that number."

"My mom... she doesn't survive Judgment Day?"

"She doesn't survive until Judgment day." the machine corrects. John goes pale.

"Having had contact with Sarah Connor, Cameron will become John Connor's top advisor. She will become the second most important figure in TechCom."

"Why did you appear out here?" Cameron asked.

"To rescue you."

"We didn't need rescuing." John stated firmly.

"No, you didn't. She did."

"From what?" Cameron asked.

"You were following a T-1001. Cameron was destroyed fighting the T-1001 in order to buy you enough time to escape."

After a few moments of silence, John turned to Cameron, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her violently.

"Don't you ever throw your life away! Not for me, not for anyone!"

"I just-" tears once again forming in her eyes.

"PROMISE ME! Promise me that you won't sacrifice yourself!"

"I CAN'T!" she screamed.

After a moment, he finds his voice.

"But... I can't lose you, Cam. I ca... I can't live without you... I don't want to." his voice small and pleading.

Searching her database of six languages in which she was fluent, she found no word or expression to express her feelings, but she knew of an action that could.

Grabbing his head with both hands, she pulled him closer and kissed him. He returned the gesture, placing one hand between her shoulder blades, and the other on the back of her neck.

"I don't want to live without you, either." she said.

Scene 107: New News, Like Old News

Cameron drives John and their new guardian toward the 'Baum' residence.

"This doesn't make any sense... If you know for a fact that she died, how can you say that she's the second most important member of the Resistance?"

"I said 'she will become'."

"What do you mean?"

"The future is not set. You wished it to be rewritten. I was sent here in order to achieve that goal."

"How are we going to do that?"

"By surviving Judgment Day." Cameron answered for the machine.

"Correct."

"Do you take orders?"

"Yes. The orders given to me by General John Connor take precedence, but I will also follow orders given by John Connor or Cameron Phillips."

"ME?!" John and Cameron said in surprise, one because he was a teenager, the other because she was a machine.

"Yes. In the event that either of your orders conflict with those given by General Connor, his will supercede yours. There are only two exceptions. The first is if I calculate that your decision provides a greater chance for the completion of my mission. The second is if the two of you are in agreement."

"What if Cameron or I try to do something which reduces the chances of you completing your mission?"

"I am to attempt to reason with you. Failing that, I am to use force. If you are the one attempting to something foolish, I am to take your place if possible. If it is Cameron, I am to either aid her, or power down if she intends to fight her way through me. This is to prevent damage to her."

"Damage to me?"

"John clearly recalled you being thoroughly outclassed by the average T-888. In single combat against me, you would not survive. Because of this, I must power down to prevent myself from damaging you."

"He's got a point, you do struggle against triple-eights."  
She ignored him and continued questioning this new defender.

"What model are you?" Cameron asked.

"I'm a T-880."

"So, you're less advanced than Cromartie was?" John asked.

"Negative. I am a prototype. Your engineers referred to Series 888 models as 'cheap knock-offs'. "

"Are you more advanced than I am?"

"I am overall technically less advanced than you are. However I was designed for combat, not infiltration. As a result, many of my components offer superior performance, but are larger and heavier- unsuitable for an average sized human frame. I am still superior to the T-888 in every possible way."

"Where did you come from? I mean where do I find you in the future?"

"John Connor and his engineers began reprogramming T-800's, T-850's, and T-888's captured from various Skynet cold storage facilities. He noticed that there was something different about my structure. My endoskeleton is twice as resistant to stress than that of a T-888 of equal size, partly because my hyper-alloy is higher quality, but mostly due to the beveled grooves on every surface of my endoskeleton."

"If that's true then why not mass produce you?" John was incredulous.

Cameron turned from watching the road to answer him.

"John, Skynet has been on the virge of losing the war for a long time. It can no longer afford to pick and choose materials or to put too much machining into each part."

"Correct. Cast and stamped parts are preferable during war."

"Skynet should have known that, so why make you at all?"

"Because Skynet is getting smarter." The T-880's answer unnerved Cameron.

"What do you mean?"

"This message comes directly from John, but he forbade me from using his voice except when it was required for my mission, referring to it was 'creepy':

Hi John, it's you! Ahahaha, I couldn't resist. But seriously, seriously, what? No I'm not drunk! Would I be sending my good friend here back in time to save my terminator girlfriend if I was drunk? FUCK YOU! Ima send 'im. Ima send 'im right now. Nope, uhuh, no, he's goin'. No, I don't need rest! Get off me! Get the fuck off me!"

There's a short pause in the audio, apparently there are two separate recordings.

John and Cameron are too confused by the first to interrupt as the second begins.

"I'm sorry that I had to send you back, Cameron.

"I'm sorry that you have to fight all the time, and I'm sorry that I got you killed. The presence of this unit is my attempt at fixing both of those mistakes.

"Skynet has started to become more human. It no longer relies soley on simulations. It has figured out that they aren't always accurate, as well as the fact that we can predict many of it's tactics through computer simulations of our own.

"Now, it actually tests things out. It finds impurities in it's new alloys by field testing them before using them in mass production. That means it'll make no more 'T-600-Halloween-mask-looking-melt-in-the-sun-on-a-hot-day' screw ups.

"This unit is the result of one of those tests. He is basically the same as the Series 888, except, well, better. The CPU is better, shock dampers are better, power cells and coils are better, it's stronger, it's faster, it's alloy is better, the whole damned endoskeleton was machined from a solid block of metal with grooved surfaces! Skynet couldn't mass produce them, but it made one... or maybe more, but this is the only one we've found or heard of. His CPU had data from the testing stage. Through his eyes, I watched several 800's, 850's, and 888's killed with little trouble. He also fought a T-1001 for over an hour, obviously, he couldn't damage it, but it didn't seem able to do any damage to him either. Admittedly, the T-1000 series' isn't very strong physically. And yes, if you are wondering, Skynet tested him on humans...

"Cam, he'll be the protector that I always wished I could have been.  
Oh, and he bears gifts. Under his infiltration sheath, he's smuggled back some minor upgrade and repair parts. The shock dampers are the most important things, I can't make promises, but you should be almost immune to electricity. That knee of yours is probably still bad, so there are a couple pieces for that. I also included a CPU body. The fact that your CPU was damaged always made me nervous that it would snap or something when twisting it to pull it out, this just clamps onto it like a little cage, supporting it.

"Oh, and John? Don't let him start cutting into himself until AFTER your mother knows what the hell's going on- and tell her that she's right about the three dots.

"Take care of yourselves."

Scene 108: For Her Honor

One burgled clothing store and two sodas later, they arrived back at the house. In all, it had taken them 6 hours to do a 3 hour stake out.

Derek and Sarah were not waiting patiently when they arrived.

John and Cameron, having decided not hide their love, entered the house, each with an arm around the other.

Sarah was infuriated by the sight.

"What the hell are you doing touching my son?! And why are you touching that thing!?"

Cameron began to withdraw from John, but he held her close, making it clear that he wasn't backing down.

"SHE'S NOT A THING!"

Sarah couldn't believe what was happening.

She and Derek noticed the large man following closely behind the two of them.

"What the hell is THAT?" Sarah shouted pointing at the obvious, and obviously benign, terminator.

"Tsch, more damn metal." Derek gave John a less than kind look.

"Our protector." Cameron answered.

"'OUR' protector?" Sarah seemed suspicious of her wording.

"General John Connor sent me back in order to protect John Connor and Cameron Phillips, here, in this time."

"You what?! John, you sent a machine back to protect Cameron? You know that they all have to be destroyed anyway, don't you?" Sarah was incredulous.

"NO!" John exclaimed.

The T-880 spoke.

"Negative. Cameron must survive Judgment Day at all costs."

"'All costs'? Does that mean we are expendable?" Sarah half screamed.

"Everyone but John. You know that." Derek pointed out.

"But my son isn't supposed to tell me that, damn it!"

"I am to protect you as long as it does not compromise John Connor's or Cameron Phillips' safety. I must ensure that Sarah Connor's experience is passed on to the future through John and Cameron."

"So that's it? He sent you back so that he and his metal could make little toasters together while they wait for the bombs to fall?"

John moved between Derek and Cameron.

"Shut the fuck up! Just shut your fucking mouth!" Sarah and Cameron were frightened by John's reaction, and Derek seemed taken aback as well.

"I'm not going to stay here with those THINGS!"

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

John stunned everyone in the room with a right jab to Derek's throat, followed by a left to his cheek, and another right to his mouth as Derek began falling.

Several more swings fell short as Cameron grabbed him and held him back.

It looked as though Cameron holding him back was all that stopped him from beating Derek to death. He kept trying to reach him, like a rabid dog tethered by a leash.

"John, please stop!" Cameron pleaded with him.

As he looked back and saw her eyes beginning to water, his rage was replaced with shame. He was terrifying her. He neither could nor would ever hurt her physically, but his behavior terrified her. She'd never even seen this from 'future John', and this John hadn't seen war yet. Hadn't lived in a concentration camp. Hadn't sent his own father to his death, and he hadn't seen his mother die of cancer.

"Please stop, John."

"Cam...? I... I was just protecting... didn't... didn't you hear what he...?"

"Making me watch you hurt your family doesn't protect me..." she began crying.

He placed his hands on her shoulders intending to hold her, but stopping himself, unsure whether he should- since he was the one causing her pain. He received his answer when she embraced him. He held her tightly while she cried and trembled in his arms, every second bringing him more shame and regret to him until he began to cry with her.

"I'm sorry Cameron, I didn't mean to hurt you."

Sarah helped Derek to his feet. He shook his head as much in shock and disgust, as to remove the dizziness.

"What's the matter with you?" Sarah looked at John with disappointment.

"He had no right to talk to her like that." John aswered, trying to keep his voice low and calm for Cameron.

"'Her'?" Derek put all the resentment he could into it. Sarah stepped in, hoping to prevent round two.

"Derek, stop it. Are you trying to make things worse?"

The T-880 strode over and glared down at him.

"First Lieutenant Derek Reese of the 132nd S.O.C.?"

"The one and only." his attitude didn't last long.

The machine grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off of his feet.

"You have been found guilty of consorting with the enemy, disobeying direct orders, and compromising the security of TechCom. Do you understand?"

"WHAT?" he choked.

"Do you understand?"

"YES!"

"By the order of General Connor, you are relieved of your rank and expelled from TechCom. However, I have been ordered not to terminate you. Do you understand?"

"YES!"

"Have a nice day." The T-880 said in an all too friendly voice, before literally hurling him through the closed front door.

"He's, he's a traitor?" John asked looking at the floor.

"Yes." The T-880 answered.

"How do you know?" Sarah shouted.

"Mom, we knew that he was up to something... Do you know what he was doing?"

"He was working with a deserter, and appeared to be aware of her attempts to manipulate you. It is possible, though unlikely, that he had no intention of harming you. However, we know beyond a doubt that he disobeyed his orders to set up a safe house and wait. John and Sarah Connor were intended to then have the support of 4 Resistance fighters and the TOK-715. An entire squad from the year 2027."

"TOK-715? That sounds stupid, haha. It doesn't sound useful at all. What is it?" John asked with a smirk, Cameron's arm began slipping away from him.

"Me." a small voice said.

"Cameron!? I, I'm sorry."

"It's ok. You didn't know." an awkward silence falling over them.

Cameron suddenly looked up.

"What exactly did you smuggle through the TDE?"

"Several shock dampers, heat sinks, repair tools, power cell upgrade, reinforcements for many of your joints, and a small body to protect your CPU from further damage."

"John said the shock dampers would make me nearly immune to electrical attack. How?"

"They are rings of superconducting material. They should absorb more electricity than any other, excluding my  
own, which are the same, just not interchangable with yours."

"Ahem! Would you please tell me what is going on?" John was surprised his mother waited this long.

"You will want to review the contents of the disc I was given. It contains additional information including minor briefs, repair instructions, weapon schematics, and information on Cameron's programming- including how to remove the 'Terminate John Connor' mission priority."

"That's a relief. She can't go bad after that, right?" Sarah asked.

"I can't anyway!"

"You DID, though."

"I can't anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because she loves me and I love her..." John spoke up.

"WHAT? YOU MEAN DEREK WAS RIGHT!"

"No." Cameron said.

"Hold on Cam, we agreed not to hide anymore."

"No, we can't make toasters."

"Why the hell would we want to raise a toaster anyway?!"

"Raise a toaster? What do you mean?" John suddenly realized that Cameron had no idea what Derek had meant.

"Why does John wish to manufacture toasters?"

Receiving no answer cameron turns back to the T-880.

"Did John say anything else?" Cameron asked with slight excitement.

"He said many things."

"Did he say anthing else about me?"

"He said that, should anything happen to you, my mission would change to 'suicide watch'. I was unfamiliar with  
that term, and could find nothing like it in my mission database. When I asked for clarification, he said 'I can't handle life without her'."

Cameron forced back her tears. The John who sent the T-880 isn't 'my' future John, but he sounds so much like him.

"Was John intoxicated when he sent you back?"

"...Yes."

"He wouldn't have done it sober?"

"He started drinking after sending you back. For several months after you were gone, he didn't speak to anyone.  
Everyone assumed that he was planning a large offensive.  
They weren't far off. The two of you will nearly guarantee victory for mankind."

"John said that Skynet was getting more human. He sounded like the Resistance was losing the war."

"Yes."

"We're losing?" Cameron suddenly found herself running probability scenarios involving John facing multiple endoskeletons. She couldn't contain her tears, as she conjured the image of his death in full detail.

"No."

"I don't understand."

"He 'sounded' like the Resistance was losing."

"Are we winning?"

"Yes..." His response eliciting from her a relieved smile.

"...but not quickly enough. According to tactical analysis, the war will continue until atleast 2077. John Connor realized that he would likely die from old age or disease before the war ended.  
Every simulation resulted in defeat after the loss of General Connor. He then asked for the simulation to be run with 2 Connors, starting on Judgment Day. The engineers altered the data resulting in a 98% probability of victory over Skynet, with an 83% chance of achieving victory by the year 2029."

"That's 21 years from now!"

She was surprised that it bothered her to hear it. This is victory. The survival of humanity. She just couldn't help but think of John needing to fight for so much longer. It was part of what had made him into the man she loved from 2027, but a part of her would rather he never became that man than to see him suffer.

"Correct. Victory will be swift." He was right, but she found his statement no less offensive.

"Time means more to humans." She nearly wispered.

"Yes. John repeatedly stated that life was short, when preparing to send me back. He attempted to send me back more than once, but his personal guards always stopped him. He said 'they didn't understand'.  
However, with post-holocaust life expectancies waning, John Connor was quickly becoming one of the oldest living humans. TechCom files showed no more than 200 humans above the age of 50, all in positions that required little to no physical activity, and access to water and air filtration systems. John Connor, after jumping 8 years into the future, was already 36 years of age in 2027, and spent much of his time on the surface leading assaults. He predicted that he would die soon."

"How does that make you feel, the thought of John dying?" Cameron asked, wondering if this terminator was meant to be like Uncle Bob and herself- John always believed that machines could be more than Skynet intended.

"My mission is to ensure the survival of John Connor and Cameron Phillips past Judgment Day. Any events after the war are irrelevant." His voice almost had a metallic ring to it.

"My explanations seem to be unsatisfactory. Perhaps the data disc I carry will contain the information you seek."

"I require a cutting tool." he said flatly.

Scene 109: The Center of the Universe

Afraid to risk damage to the disc by taking it out of the house, Cameron had snuck into John's room and retrieved his laptop before stealing away to her bedroom in order to access the disc.

Seated at a small desk, she inserted the disc.

She was not happy with what she found.

It contained large amounts of personal information. Large amounts of useless data, such as appointments and medical test results. The fact that he was in perfect health did little to comfort her. She knew that while the tiniest tidbit of information could be useful if known in advance, this information was not intended for them.

He wouldn't have chosen to send back this disc.

She realized that the T-880 was lying. He wasn't a threat, he was ordered to protect all of them- but from the truth. Just as her John had asked her to protect John from the knowledge of his mother's cancer.

She noticed a folder entitled 'No Fate'. Inside she found images of herself, some with John, but all happy. Real happiness.

She recognized her clothing and hair in one picture. It was a school photo, taken during the weeks she had spent blending in at school waiting for John 'Reese'.

She noticed a video file named "Six Months" and played it:

She could see herself sitting at a small table. In the pre-war world it would have been used for a TV or some potted plants, but in the wake of the devastation it was considered extravagent enough for the leader and savior of all mankind.

It had a white cloth over it, possibly hand made post-war, two plates of food- real food -meat, vegetables, seasoning, everything that was taken for granted before the war. There were also two glasses of wine, the bottle sitting to the side. She had spotted the same kind with Sarah while she had posed as a wealthy widow. It was expensive in 2008, and couldn't imagine what he must have traded for it in the future. She felt awful seeing her alternate self enjoying the attention, but unable to fully understand what John had gone through to set this up.

She wished that she could talk through the screen, that she could tell herself just how much this- she -meant to John.

"John, what are you doing?"

"We're celebrating. I found you again six months ago today, and I don't want to miss this."

John said as he moved toward the table, having finished setting up the camera.

"'Again'? I don't understand."

"It's nothing, don't worry about it."

"A toast." he said as he raised his glass. Cameron watched herself do the same.

"To what?" Cameron asked.

"To our future. The only one worth fighting for..."

'To our future. The only one worth fighting for...' she committed the moment to memory, replaying his words side by side with words from 'her John', and some from the John here in 2008.

She realized how much she wanted to be with him again. She wanted to go to him, through the screen if she could.

But the man in the video wasn't her John. Or was he? She realized then that he was hers. They were all hers. Every one of them was eternally devoted to her. They would die for her. They would surrender all of humanity to extinction- for her.

It no longer mattered that she would never know this John. She had to know who had killed him.

She began searching the names contained on the disc for anyone who stood out.

Scanning the entire roster she found the one person whom she could not trust, the one person who would be willing to cut the head off of the Risistance, betraying all of humanity in the process-

John Connor.

She knew then, that he had killed himself because he had sent her away.

Scene 110: I Can't Be Your Superman

"It's all my fault..."

"What's your fault?" it was the first time John had been able to sneak up on _her_.

"You- it's nothing."

"Cam, no more secrets. No more hiding."

"John..." She turned and he saw her cheeks glisten.

"Have you been crying? What's wrong?" he knelt down in front of her taking her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes. She saw the concern in his eyes, and knew she had to be honest with him.

"You died. In the future." she couldn't hold back her tears anymore, she didn't want to.

He understood. She had just lost him, and there were decades keeping her from doing anything about it.

"You killed yourself because of me..."

"No! Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault."

"But, after you sent me away, you-"

"I couldn't live without you?"

"You feel the same way as the other John?" A mixture of happiness and sorrow mingled in her eyes.

"I do." He gave her a reassuring smile.

"Then don't do it!"

"What?"

"You think that I want you to die? After I'm destroyed, there's nothing left of me, but until then I take comfort in knowing that you'll survive me. Please don't take that away from me."

"Cameron, the future isn't wor-"

"Worth fighting for?"

He couldn't believe that she'd just completed such a personal thought for him.

"The other John said that... The one who killed himself. Maybe my John-"

"I'm your John, too."

"I know that, I just meant-"

"I know. I wanted to tell you."

She collapsed against him, crying into his chest for the second time that night. 'I'm sorry Cam', he thought 'I'm sorry that I can only protect you from this kind of pain.'

He began to cry with her, but at his own weakness. He wanted to protect her, but he was just flesh and blood. He wasn't strong enough. He'd never be strong enough.

She would always be the one doing the protecting, and it made him feel pathetic.

'What kind of man can't protect those he cares about?'

'What kind of man lets the girl of his dreams fight all the time?'

'Why can't I protect her?'

"I'm not strong enough." he thought aloud.

Cameron looked up, confused.

"I can't protect you." He answered her unasked question.

"I don't need you to protect me."

"I get people killed. If I don't protect you, I'll get you killed too."

"People die because Skynet kills them, not because of you."

"It IS because of me. If I were stronger-"

"Then Skynet would compensate."

She may be right, but her words didn't help. Her presence and her attempt at comforting him did, however.

"You don't have to be stronger than me to deserve me." she said as she scooped him up, like a groom carrying his bride, and carried him back to his room.

He couldn't help but laugh aloud at his current predicament.

The absurdity of what appeared to be happening was not lost on Cameron, either.

Sarah had to duck into a doorway to avoid being spotted.

Cameron placed him on his bed.

"You sent a terminator to protect me. I'll be fine. Now rest."

"Cam, I love you. Don't forget that, no matter what happens."

"I won't, John. I love you too. I always have, and I always will."

She gently placed her lips on his. After several seconds, she pulled back, smiling into his eyes.

"Now, get some rest."

***************************************************************************************


	2. Scenes 111 to 120

**Predaking50ae Scenes 111-120**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 111: Cold Hearted

Walking back to her room she felt lighter. She felt as though all of their problems were evaporating. In only a few hours, they had worked out so many of them.

Sarah stepped out from a side room directly in her path, syphoning away the only happiness she'd felt in months.

"We need to talk." Sarah said firmly.

"Not here, we'll wake John."

"You are manipulating my son. I want to know why."

"I'm not. I wouldn't-"

"You've convinced him that you can feel, that you're a person."

"But I can feel."

"Oh yeah? And how the hell do you know that?"

"John told me."

"When? After you tricked him into believing it?"

"No, he told me I had emotions after he reactivated me."

"That was after you cried and told him you loved him!"

"No, in the future after he saved me. After he released me from my programming."

"You expect me to believe that? You're a machine!"

"John said humans are machines too. He said they're just made with different materials."

"Do I look like a machine to you?"

"Yes. Your body is powered by-"

"THAT DOESN'T MATTER."

Cameron was confused, how could the evidence not matter?

"THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT'S IN HERE!" Sarah placed her hand over her heart.

"WHAT DOES A MACHINE LIKE YOU HAVE IN THERE!" she jammed a finger into Cameron's chest.

"John." she answered looking at the floor, "John is all I have."

"HE'S NOT YOURS!"

"YES! I! AM!" John appeared in the hallway with fire in his eyes.

"John, don't be stupid. You know what she is!"

"I know WHO she is."

"DAMN IT JOHN SHE'S NOT A PERSON!"

"YES SHE IS! SHE FEELS! SHE THINKS! SHE LEARNS! SHE DOES EVERYTHING THAT MAKES US HUMAN!"

"But she's not human. A human wouldn't-"

"A human wouldn't what? Wouldn't Kill to protect me? Wouldn't die to protect me?"

"You know I'd do those things!"

"That's my point! She loves me, she'd die for me- she already did! Even if you can't accept that you must see that I'm better off with her here!"

"We were fine before she showed up, John. We don't need her."

"No _we_ don't, but _I_ do. I didn't know what would happen when I brought her back that night. I thought she'd kill me, but I didn't care. I would rather die than face the future without her!"

Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but didn't get a chance.

"John, she's your mother. She loves you. You need her." Cameron said as she put a comforting arm around his shoulder.

"Don't you touch him!"

John stared unblinking into his mothers eyes. His face was blank.

"We all have to grow up sometime."

Scene 112: Satin and Sawdust

7:30am. The sun had risen over the 'Baum' residence. The T-880 had fixed the front door, and reset the security system. Neither would stop Derek or a terminator, but they would deter amateur criminals and vandals.

John had spent the night reading 'The Wizard of Oz' aloud- in very rusty Spanish -while Cameron rested her head on his shoulder.

The story wasn't very good, but she knew that it wasn't about the story. It was about the memories. The few years during which his mother had spared him from the truth about his future. Innocence was what the story represented to him.

Then she saw the similarities between the book and John's destiny.

Forces beyond Dorothy's control had propelled her into the land of Oz, where she was declared a hero for something she hadn't even done, and expected to save everyone in the land. She was expected to fix everyone's problems when all she wanted was to go home.

The Tin Woodman, a machine who was willing to do anything for a heart, only to discover that he already had one.

The Wicked Witch of the West was trying to take away what little hope Dorothy had left.

Even the almighty Wizard was just a man.

After it was over, everyone but Dorothy was better off for her intervention. Her only reward, was going home, back to the way things already had been, before the tornado.

She would never see her friends again. She could never tell anyone what had happened.

Who would believe her?

As a terminator, Cameron naturally compared new information to old in order to better understand it, and to avoid storing useless data.

She had always undertood the definition of the word 'metaphor', but for the first time she realized the importance. She realized that to John, the whole story was a metaphor. If Dorothy could go home, so could he.

Cameron had been so still and calm as he read to her that he had to remind himself several times 'She doesn't sleep'.

As John closed the book, he heard Cameron's whisper.

"No fate..."

"Cameron?" he couldn't believe what he'd just heard her say.

"I understand now why the story means so much to you. You wish to go home."

"No I don't." his voice was soft, but his face... had she offended him?

"You don't?" her heart sank. 'Maybe I'll never understand, never be... human enough.'

He placed the book on his lap and trapped her eyes with his.

"Cameron, you're from Oz. I don't want to go home anymore."

"I don't want you to either."

She pulled him close and held him tightly.

"Besides, what kind of badass soldier wears silver shoes?"

Scene 113: I Want To Believe

Sarah had bugged her son's room, and spent the night listening him and the machine.

Could she have been wrong about Cameron? She sounded so human. She saw deeper meaning in a simple story.

No, she just wants to keep John close by as part of her mission. Wait, her mission was no longer to 'Protect John Connor'. Or did she lie about that?

She knew what she had to do. Dropping the earpiece onto her nightstand, she headed for John's room.

Opening his door, she was stunned by the sight before her.

She knew that they had been on John's bed and therefor in close proximity for the entire night, but seeing the machine in John's arms while he stroked its hair like a normal girl was not what she had expected.

The machine wasn't trying to convince him that it was human, HE was trying to convince the machine that it was.

It was clear to her in that moment, that John's interest in the machine wasn't born from the horomones of a teenage boy, as she had believed.

John didn't stop comforting Cameron when he saw his mother.

Her mouth fell open but she couldn't speak.

She didn't know what she felt, but it wasn't the rage from the previous confrontation.

John prepared for another shouting match, but stopped when he saw the look in his mother's face as she struggled to speak.

"W-w-we need..."

She shook herself out of her stupor.

"John, we need to pull her chip."

"NO!"

"Just listen."

"NO YOU LISTEN! I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU PEOPLE HURT HER ANYMORE!"

"'You people'? John, I'm your mother."

"I don't care, I still won't let you hurt her."

"I don't want to!"

"YOU WANT TO KILL HER!"

"NO! I want to see what's on her chip."

"Her thoughts are on it! You're talking about reading her mind!"

"Yes, I am."

"Why? Why is it any of your business?"

"BECAUSE YOU'RE MY SON! I NEED TO KNOW IF SHE..."

"If she what?!"

"...if she's telling the truth about you and her, in the future, I mean."

"That's between us- them."

"I just need answers, John. I need to know if she's been manipulating everyone, or if in the future the two of you were together."

"She isn't mani-"

"Ok." Cameron said.

"Cam! You can't! I won't pull your chip."

"John, you sent back data on removing my mission objectives. You can access my visual records at the same time."

"But those are your memories..."

"It's ok. I read your mind all the time."

With a smile she gently traced her finger tips across his neck, performing a biomarker scan. She moved her hand to his chin, her touch rooting him in place, as she leaned the extra few inches and pressed her lips against his.

Sarah for her part, stayed silent since Cameron seemed to be the only one able to convince John to remove her chip. Atleast, until John's hands found the bare skin on Cameron's lower back, above her lowrider jeans, but below her shirt. It looked like any second he was going lay back and pull her with him.

"I'm still here."

Reluctantly, they separated.

"John, everything will be fine."

"All right, Cam."

Scene 114: A Piece of Me

Cameron lay on her bed, John sitting to the side. Sarah had left them alone for this.

John began cutting a semi-circle around Cameron's CPU port.

"John?" her voice was small.

"Yeah?" his voice trembling.

"Whatever happe-"

"Nothing's going to happen."

He peeled back the her scalp.

"John. Whatever happens. Whatever you see. Please remember, I love you."

"I love you, too. But nothing's going to happen."

"When I was glitching, after I went bad? Those memories weren't supposed to be there."

"What do you mean?"

He removed the CPU port's cover, breaking the seal.

"Before my reprogramming, my memory was supposed to be wiped. The information is apparently still there, just not consciously accessible. I did bad things."

"Cameron, you were a terminator."

"No, I AM a terminator, and I've done bad things here, too."

"It was your job. We don't expect soldiers to bear the responsibility of every decision they make, even when they have to kill people."

"Soldiers don't kill children." she didn't know if she'd done so, but she knew that she would have while under Skynet's control.

John's reassuring smile wavered for a moment, but came back strong.

"They do if their programming is strong enough."

"John, things won't be the same."

"Yes they will be. Cameron, I promise."

One half turn, counter-clockwise.

"You'll see things. Things that humans aren't supposed to see. You'll see war. You'll see it through my eyes."

"I'm not afraid."

She saw his smile, his kind, green eyes seemed to be glowing from the love behind them.

"I am."

Her world went black.

Scene 115: Things Have Changed, John

Three hours later.

Cameron's chip has been reinserted. Fifteen seconds and she be back online.  
During this time, she sees the last 15 seconds before deactivation.  
The last image is of John's loving eyes.

Her optic sensors come back online, and she sees John's face. There's no love there.

"You're fixed." he says flatly.

"John, I-"

"Mom's satisfied."

"That's good, but I ha-"

"I installed that CPU protector thing."

"John, ple-"

"Don't worry about it."

"Please, let me explain."

"You're a terminator. I knew what you were capable of."

He hadn't called her that in a long time. It was accurate, but his usage demonstrated just how bad what he'd seen must have been.

"Please don't hate me."

"..."

"Please, John."

"..."

Scene 116: Pain for Pleasure

One hour before reactivation.

John has just seen Cameron chase down and kill eight people, after they escaped from their cage in some sort of ship.

Two had tried to fight her, just trying to buy time for the others.  
Two more were killed the moment she reached them.  
Four of them begged for their lives.  
Three of those even offered to walk, and later, crawl, back to their cage.

The ones who begged took the longest to die. Their screams and pleas echoed in the metallic hull of the ship.

She had simply laughed at them.

A T-888 endoskeleton had arrived and quickly silenced the broken and mutilated bodies.

Cameron had flown into a rage screaming about not 'having spent enough time with them'.

The T-888 had offered them a merciful death, even though it was under the same directives that she had been.

'We're not built to be cruel' she had once told him. Yet, she was anyway.

Now he watches Cameron and Derek, or rather, Derek through Cameron's eyes. He's been injected- no, forced to inject himself -with some sort of drug.

"What was her favorite thing to do?"

"Dancing... She liked to dance..."

John hadn't known there was a pressure point on each side of the neck.

"What kind of dancing?"

"Ballet..."

Cameron knew.

"What else did she like?"

"Music..."

Cameron enjoyed teaching Derek Reese about them.

"What kind of music?"

"Classic...al..."

She held a shackled Derek Reese's face inches from her own, one hand on each side of his neck. Without blinking, moving, or allowing him to do the latter, she stared into his eyes for six hours at a time, on atleast three occasions.

"Specifically?"

"I don't know..."

She kept asking questions about 'Allison Young', John Connor, and Connor's camp.

"Specifically?"

"I told you, I don't know..."

John knew there might be torture, but he didn't expect the psychological variety. It seemed worse, somehow, than the purely physical torture he had attempted to prepare himself to see.

"Specifically?"

"Should have asked her... before you stole... her face..."

He wasn't prepared to watch his own uncle being broken by hours of questioning, drugs, and pain.

"I did. She said 'Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor Number 20'. It's playing right now."

"Then why did-?"

John certainly wasn't prepared to watch Cameron enjoy what she was doing. He knew that she could monitor biomarkers. He knew that this allowed her to tell if someone was being honest. She pretended to not have the ability with Derek.

When he told her the truth, she continued anyway.

"Not all at once, mind you, it took a very, very, very long time."

"But why?"

She had asked questions she already knew the answers to, long after he'd been broken.

"Because I enjoy our time together." she began laughing.

"Metal... bitch..."

She had fun doing it.

"Don't worry, we have another two hours, thirty-seven minutes, si- five seconds left."

"What... do you have to... gain...?"

She seemed to enjoy this time with Derek just as much as she would her time with John.

"I told you, I want to spend more time with you."

"She was... just a girl..."

John's affection in 2027 and 2008 appeared to make her no happier than Derek's suffering. She became more playful about it as time went on, taunting him instead of asking questions.

"Not just a girl, a very pretty girl. Look at these eyes, aren't they gorgeous?"

"...why...?"

"RUDE! You haven't noticed my hair! And after I worked so hard to get it right..."

"...she was... nobody..."

"I have a beautiful singing voice, too."

"...she was... just a girl..."

"Not to Connor."

Scene 117: Hello, Nurse

Two hours before reactivation.

John spent the previous hour removing Cameron's mission related programming leaving her with absolutely no mission parameters.

Everything that Cameron had done after he brought her back had been by choice.

John knew that for a fact, having read her chip. He also knew that from this point forward anything she did would be by choice.

She completely free, and he had freed her.

"Mom! I found it!"

"Already?!" his mother sounded surprised as she shouted from another room.

A few loud foot steps and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich appeared beside him.

"Oh, thanks. Yeah, her chip is full of this stuff, months of it."

"Months?"

"Yeah, watch."

Through Cameron's eyes they saw the concrete halls of John Connor's TechCom stronghold.

"You said this was it?"

"Just watch."

The tour neared an elevator. She took it down.

"An elevator ride isn't what I was looking for, John."

"Watch."

Getting off, she headed for her destination.

"Where's she going?"

"Just watch."

She entered the room, finding it dark, she switched to infrared. Scanning the room, she discovered a single prone human form. She walked over and placed her hand around it's throat, and the reclining figure began to choke and cough.

"WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING!"

John doesn't answer.

Then Cameron spoke.

"John, you have a fever."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"You'll need to take isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol for two months, followed by isoniazid and rifampicin for a further four months."

"This isn't right. I'm almost certainly the only person receiving 'real' treatment."

"Don't think about that, think about resting."

"I don't need rest. Stay here with me."

"You've been quarantined until you stop coughing."

"First of all, the doctor said that most people in the base probably already have tuberculosis and are just asymptomatic. Second, you can't even catch it!"

"I wish for you to feel better."

"I do feel better, now that you're here. Losing some sleep isn't going to be the difference between life or death."

"I'll stay, but only if you try to get some rest."

"Deal. The sole purpose of this bed will be rest and recovery."

"You didn't enjoy the 'other' things we've used it for?"

"Wha- NO! I mean yes! Of course! That's not what-"

"I fooled you again."

"You love doing that to me, don't you?"

"John, I only love YOU."

"I love you too, Allison."

John ends playback. Sarah and John take a moment to absorb what they've just witnessed.

"Who's Allison?" Sarah asked.

"I don't know. Maybe just an alias. When Cameron glitched, she said her name was Allison."

"Glitched?"

"She forgot who she was while shopping. I didn't tell you because I knew that you and Derek would kill her. Don't worry about it, it won't happen again. The problem is fixed." The lie was easy, for all he knew it might have been fixed.

"Do you know anything else?"

"Just that she's from Palmdale. There's a lot of stuff that Cameron can't remember because it's blocked. I'll look for more info on Allison."

Scene 118: I Lay My Dreams at Your Feet...

Several minutes after reactivation.

Cameron has continued to cry and beg John not to hate her. John, however, has shown no concern for her, no happiness at her safe return. She followed him as he silently walked back to his room having not slept the previous night.

John had just stepped through the doorway to his room when Cameron grabbed him by the arm. Spinning him around, forcibly pulling him to her body and holding him tightly.

"I'm tired. Let go of me."

"Don't hate me, please don't hate me. I love you John. It wasn't me."

"I saw what you did."

"John, please. Please, whatever you saw, it wasn't me."

"You tortured people, toyed with them. If the triple-eight hadn't..."

"I didn't know! You wiped those memories! You said they weren't mine, that I shouldn't have to carry them!"

"You tortured Derek."

"...!" disbelief took over her tear covered face.

"You enjoyed it. You taunted him about having Allison's voice. Her hair. Her eyes."

He had a look of disgust on his face as his eyes paused at her mouth, his hand played with her hair, and finally he looked into her eyes. She had never felt as much pain as she did when he looked into her eyes with revulsion.

"That wasn't me, John."

"I'd have burned you if it was."

"John?! Then why are you-"

"Because I was wrong about you. I thought you were different."

"I am different!" her eyes begged him to see that she was, pleaded with him to tell her that he knew she different.

"How? Size? Sex? How are you any different from the machines we burn every day?"

"I ignored my own programming when it told me to kill you. You loved me, you brought me back, I couldn't kill you. My programming couldn't make me do it!"

"And when it told you to torture those people? Torture Derek?"

"I was young, John."

"You were 'Young'? Did you kill her too?"

"You know what I meant!"

"Did. You. Kill. Her?"

"Yes! Yes, I killed her! I crushed her neck in my hand! I know that I'm a monster."

"Who was she?"

"Someone close to you. I don't know any more."

"Were we- Allison and I -were we lovers?"

"I don't know. I don't think so."

"How do you know?"

"You loved me, how could you if I had killed your lover?"

"..."

"Please John, please forgive me!"

"..."

"It wasn't me. It wasn't! I'm different! I love you!"

Cameron's cheeks were covered in tears, her brown eyes pleading for forgiveness, for comfort. She kept her arms around him crying and begging for him to accept her back.

John remained motionless, not returning her embrace.

Despite having heard many of her words when she was trapped between the trucks, the revulsion in his eyes was replaced with disappointment.

"Why did you lie to me? Why didn't you tell me about Allison before? WHEN I ASKED!?"

His shout seemed to scare the sadness out of her. She looked stunned for a moment.

As if she thought that he knew the answer.

"You hated me. I wanted you to love me so badly, but you hated me. I had done my best, but it wasn't enough. You didn't want me. I didn't even have a mission anymore. All I had left was 2027. I was afraid you'd destroy me if you found out about her. If you did that then you'd never love me! I had to survive! I had to survive until 2027! If I could do that, then you'd love me again!"

His resolve wavered, a tear betraying his emotions. 'Was she really prepared to wait twenty years just for me to love her'?

"John! You promised! I kept my promise! Now you have to keep yours!" she struggled to force the words through the tears. Overcome with emotion, she lost her grip on him, her arms falling loosely to her sides. She wanted to hold on, but her arms wouldn't respond, her legs started to give.

John remembered how they'd been just a few hours earlier, when he'd promised things would be the same.

"John, I love you. Please?" her voice was barely a whisper, she began to collapse to her knees.

He tried to catch her, but ended up falling to his knees with her in his arms.

"I'm sorry, Cameron, I'm so sorry. It wasn't you. I know it wasn't you. I love you."

She looked into his eyes and saw the kind green eyes he'd shown her before.

"Don't ever leave me."

"I won't. I promise."

Scene 119: Lover's Quarrel

2:00am A familiar face, a cargo container, and a familiar warehouse.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!"

"Derek, baby, I-"

*slap*

"THE MACHINE WAS UNDER ORDERS FROM 'GENERAL' CONNOR!"

*slap*

"You must have heard wrong."

*slap*

"WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING?!"

*slap*

"Derek, it's me."

"DON'T PLAY GAMES!"

*slap* *slap*

"Don't you recognize me?"

*slap*

"I recognize you. You're the one who sold me out. Sold out the whole god damned human race!"

*slap* *slap* *slap* *slap*

"TELL ME WHAT YOU'RE PLANNING!"

*slap* *SLAP* *SLAP!*

"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO JOHN?!

*slap* *slap*

"It's me, baby, it's Jesse."

"Fine, you don't want to talk?"

He drews his Beretta.

Her calm demeanor during the abuse suffered at his hands made it clear- she was working for the other side. Her chuckle when seeing the gun was just icing, he already figured it out. She was using him. She was using him and believed that she had enough hold over him to get through this alive.

She felt the impact on the back of her head, then nothing.

She was right. She had enough hold on him to survive this.

She knew of a plot against his nephew, and he'd be damned if he was going to let the last piece of his brother die.

He lifted her unconscious form onto his shoulder and headed to her- now his -car, throwing her into the trunk like a piece of trash.

To save John, he needed to find out what she knew. He couldn't get anything out of her, but he knew someone who could.

Scene 120: Homecoming

2:37am Outside the 'Baum' residence.

Derek parks Jesse's black Mercedez along the street. Out of habit, he checks his Beretta, knowing that it won't help him anyway.

Unafraid to die, but fearing that his intentions- and therefor the war -will be lost, he hastily scrawls a note and keeps it clenched in his fist.

'Now if they kill me, my message will still reach them.'

He steps out of the car and heads for the front door, certain to conceal his weapon in the hope that the machines will let him live long enough to explain himself to his nephew.

Feeling as though he was preparing to knock directly on a triple-eight's forehead, he placed his knuckles inches from the door.

'This ones for you, Kyle'.

***************************************************************************************


	3. Scenes 121 to 130

**Predaking50ae Scenes 121-130**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 121: Hero's Welcome

2:40am John and Cameron are lying on John's bed talking about their 'childhoods'.

Each seems to be doing a perfect job of filtering out the bad.

John has been able to tell her about growing up in the '90s without mentioning his delinquency, the murder of his foster parents, or the birthdays and Christmas' spent without his mother.

For her part, Cameron has been telling him about her life in TechCom HQ, filtering out any mention of the war, the diseased, the destitute, or the lives he'd have to sacrifice in order to win.

John is laughing hysterically at the thought of Cameron having arrived at one of General Perry's briefs completely nude, before announcing to all those in attendance that it was because:

'John fell asleep on my jumpsuit.'

Their happiness was short-lived, however as they heard a loud knock at the door, followed by a crash, a bang, and thud.

They ran downstairs, a SPAS-12 toting Sarah met by an equally prepared, Remington equipped Cameron, and a typically unarmed John.

Looking around they saw a broken door, a smashed coffee table, and Derek slumped against a far wall with the T-880 rapidly approaching him.

"STOP!" Derek barked. It was an order, not a plea, there was no fear in his voice.

The T-880 grabbed him by the ankle and was about to smash his body against the brick fireplace like a human smashing a beer bottle in a bar fight, when John and Cameron intervened.

"WAIT!"

The T-880 stopped mid-swing and chose instead to hold him upside down.

"What are you doing here?" John asked.

"What do you think! I'm here to help you!"

Derek hit the floor with a solid *thud* as the T-880 dropped him without warning.

"General Connor predicted your defection."

"I was never working for the Grays! I didn't know that she was!"

"Grays? John, do you know what he's talking about?" Sarah asked.

"Humans who work for Skynet." Cameron answered for him.

As tough as he was, Derek couldn't quite stand yet. The piece of paper, still clenched in his fist, he hurled it toward his nephew.

"The plot this machine thinks I'm part of? I've brought you the one responsible."

"I'm glad that you're back, Derek." John was instantly trusting, which unnerved his mother.

"Why should I trust you with my son's life?"

Cameron walked over to him.

He was up in the air, a hand around his throat. 'This is getting old.'

You will answer my questions only with a 'Yes' or a 'No'. Do you understand?"

"YES!" he struggled to force out the word.

"Are you working for the Grays?"

"NO!"

"Are you here to hurt John?"

"NO!"

"Are you here to protect John?"

"YES!"

John spoke up.

"Are you here to hurt Cameron?"

"NO!"

"He's telling the truth." Cameron announced as she placed him on the couch, loosening her grip but keeping a firm hand on his throat.

She used her hand to continue monitoring his biomarkers for any hint of dishonesty, and to be certain that he didn't try anything foolish.

John handed his uncle a beer as he finished relating the events since his unceramonious eviction from the 'Baum' house.

"If the machine hadn't told me what I had been accused of, I wouldn't have suspected her. Jesse saved my life more than once. I love her."

John and Cameron cast each other an understanding glance.

"I tried to get her to tell me what she knew. I couldn't make her talk."

"Then what are we going to do with her?" Sarah asked.

"I brought her here because she can get her to talk." he nodded at Cameron.

"NO!"

"John-" Sarah started.

"SHE DOESN'T TORTURE PEOPLE ANYMORE!" his mother hadn't seen the torture sessions on Cameron's chip.

Derek tried to reason with him.

"If we don't find out what she knows, you are going to die. Sarah will lose her son, I'll lose my nephew, and..." He trailed off as he motioned toward Cameron. He couldn't believe what he'd almost said.

"I'll do it..." Cameron was disgusted with the thought. Whatever she had done in the past, she wasn't herself when she did them. Now she was going to have to do those things as herself, unless she wanted John to die.

"Cameron, you can't..."

"I have to. I won't let anything happen to you!"

John had to think fast. There had to be something that he could say. Something that he could do.

"Cameron, if you do this... I'm leaving."

Sarah spoke up before Cameron's mouth could move.

"John! She has to do this for you! Because she loves you!"

"No. If she can do this, then I don't want to have anything to do with her."

Trying to keep a poker face, he began heading for his room. The most painful part of all was needing to step out of a devastated Cameron's reach as she tried to get him to turn his head to look at her.

He couldn't risk being scanned.

Derek and Sarah were talking about what had to be done.

Cameron was trying not to cry in front of them. She had to go to him. She had to explain to him that she was protecting him. That she would truly do anything for him.

Just as she began heading for the stairs, there was the sound of squealing tires. Through the destroyed door, they Sarah glimpsed Derek's car taking off.

"NO! DAMN IT! WE HAVE TO STOP HER!" Derek lost his composure.

"She's heading west. Is your cell in the car?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Cameron! Stay here with John, tell him to track Derek's cellphone."

She tossed Derek a few Beretta magazines from a drawer, under some potholders.

"We're going hunting."

Sarah and Derek began heading for the door. When a distressed Cameron shouted to them.

Scene 122: Human Shield

2:56am 'Baum' residence, John's room.

'I'm not going to let her do this to herself.'

He grabs his small toolbox.

'I may be weaker and slower, but I can still protect her.'

He tucks his Glock 17 into his waistband.

'I can protect her from this. I have to. No one else can. I saved her from this life in 2027. Now I have to make sure that means something.'

He drops his cellphone on his desk.

'I have to do this.'

He climbs out his window and heads for Derek's car. Opening the door, he starts hotwiring the car.

He knows that Cameron- or the others -could have figured out what he was doing.

At any moment they could grab him, and pull him out of there. He didn't have time to make sure that Cameron wasn't already following him.

'I won't let this be on your conscience.'

The car starts. He stomps on the gas, not knowing if anyone has discovered him or not.

Scene 123: Dirty Work

3:01am 'Baum' residence, John's room. Cameron is seated at John's desk attempting to use his laptop to track Derek's cellphone.

John had left his cell on the desk as a message and to avoid being tracked.

"Cameron, stay here, tell us where he stops. Derek, let's go."

Derek stood his ground.

"Derek! Move it!"

"Sarah... you aren't going to be able to stop him."

"We'll see about that."

Derek grabbed her shoulder, and barely dodged a swipe from her SPAS that would have knocked him unconscious.

"You need to stay here, Sarah."

"HE'S MY SON!"

"Cameron is the the only one who can talk him down."

"Fine, then you stay here!"

"I have to go for Jesse. Cameron has to go for John. He thinks that we're going to force Cameron to torture Jesse if he doesn't do it for her."

Sarah felt like she was going to be sick. For the first time, she stopped to think about what this was all about- her little boy torturing another human being.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no... This isn't happening, this can't be happening... not my baby... no, no, no..."

Derek saw her breaking down, but he knew that she'd do her job. She'd track John.

"Come on, Cameron. Let's get him back."

'While we still can.' they both thought to themselves.

Scene 124: The Abyss

3:28am A familiar loading dock, with familiar trucks.

Standing here, he could still smell the tires of the truck smoking.

He could still hear the roar of the engine.

He could still hear Cameron's pleas.

He could still see her face.

He could see her begging him not to remove her chip.

It had been a trick, but she had also been telling the truth.

'It wasn't me.'

It wasn't her.

'I love you, and you love me.'

She loved him, and he loved her.

"I'm doing this for you."

John had had to hit Jesse quite a few times before she stayed still enough for him to duct tape her to the metal chair.

She was bleeding from her nose, scalp, left eyebrow, and mouth.

John stood out of sight. Trying to think- without thinking.

He had no idea what he was supposed to do next, but he knew that if he let himself _think_ about it, he wouldn't be able to make himself _do_ it.

He thought of Cameron's face when she begged him not to pull her chip.

He picked up a screw driver, walked over, and brought it down on Jesse's thigh as hard as he could.

She screamed, but it wasn't loud enough to mask the sound of metal scraping on bone.

"WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING?!"

Screams and laughter.

"So this- urk -is what the grEAT- hmmph -John Co- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

He began twisting it side to side. If she didn't want to answer his questions, she could scream.

"WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING?!"

She didn't answer. She just made noises. So he twisted some more.

"Go fuck yourse-" He slammed his palm onto the handle of the screw driver.

He remembered how Cameron had asked the same question, over and over, until she got her answer. If he could do that, maybe she'd tell him what he needed to know.

"WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING?!"

She only made noises.

He began to pry the screw driver back and forth. It made squishing sounds.

"You- hmmph -know, it.. starts to go numb aft- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

He stomped on the handle.

"I have all night." he said as he began looking into his toolbox.

He noticed a tiny white packet, it had come with another item to keep it dry.

"You know, I don't go to school much anymore."

He ripped open the packet.

"But while I was going, I learned a little bit about hydrates. Enough to know that this is salt." He poured it into her thigh wound.

She screamed, but didn't tell him anything. He pulled another item out of the toolbox.

"When the T-1000 tortured my mom, he did THIS!" John jammed his switchblade under her collar bone and began to twist.

Scene 125: Double Date

3:41am

A Dodge pickup flew in through the garage door and stopped. John trained his Glock on the driver's side half of the windshield.

"JOHN!" Cameron stepped out of the driver's side, Derek stayed in the passenger seat.

"Cameron? You're not supposed to be here!"

"John, look at what you're doing, this isn't you!" She ran toward him.

"STAY BACK!" She wasn't surprised that he pointed his gun at her.

"I know how you feel John, believe me, but I can't let you do this."

"I'm doing this so that you don't have to!"

"I know, but I'm the one who has to."

"I WON'T LET YOU! I HAVE TO PROTECT YOU!"

"No you don't! I don't need your protection! John, I need YOU! Put the gun down."

"You're just going to pick up where I left off. It doesn't matter."

Derek hopped out of the truck and ran toward Jesse.

"STOP! You won't make my Cameron do it! I won't let you."

"John, look at what's happening to you! You aren't protecting me by doing this to yourself! Whatever you think that you're protecting me from, THIS IS WORSE!"

"Wha-? I have to do this so that they can't make you do it!"

"Please John. Get in the truck. Derek will take you home."

He brought his gun around toward Jesse.

"MY CAMERON DOESN'T TORTURE PEOPLE!"

"NEITHER DOES MY JOHN!"

*BANG!*

Derek fell to his knees clutching his stomach, his Beretta clattered to the floor.

Cameron and John gather around him.

"Why?" John asked.

"Because you're my nephew." Derek answered.

Jesse is dead.

When Derek saw that John was about to pull the trigger, he reacted.

To protect his nephew form killing a stranger, he had killed a lover.

Scene 126: No Regrets?

7:30am 'Baum' residence.

Sarah had been terrified of what would walk through that door, wearing her son's face.

When he assured her that he was fine, her fear had grown.

'If he did what I think he did, then he shouldn't be fine' she thought.

Derek was passed out drunk on the couch. The T-880 watched over him. Fearing that he may hurt himself, Cameron and John had ordered the T-880 not to let him leave the room.

Cameron and John, as always, were on his bed together talking.

'Atleast, that's what they'd damned well better be doing', Sarah thought to herself.

Unable to get the thought out of her mind, she went to check on them.

''Them'? Ha, I actually care about the mach-' she couldn't complete the thought.

Now, just thinking about calling Cameron a 'machine' made her feel guilty.

Sarah opened John's door. She began to wonder if she would ever be prepared for what she'd see behind it. Everytime it shocked her.

Cameron was sitting against the headboard, John was asleep with his head on her lap while she stroked his hair.

"He's sleeping." she whispered to Sarah, who nodded before entering the room.

"How long has he been out?"

"127 minutes." Sarah was even more worried, now. They hadn't gotten there much more than two hours ago.

"How is he?"

"He suffered an acute stress reaction."

"He's in shock?" Sarah was relieved.

"Yes, he will take some time to get over what happened."

"What did happen?"

"He... tried to protect me."

"By doing what? He's my son. I need to know what happened."

Cameron looked at John sleeping on her lap, as if thinking of a lie. Some way of protecting Sarah and John from what he'd done. She wanted to lie, but John had been Sarah's before he was hers. Sarah was strong, she could handle it.

"When Derek and I arrived..."

Sarah held her breath. Cameron's pause seemed to last for an eternity as thoughts of what her baby boy might have done to another person.

"...Jesse was taped to a chair with a screw driver in her leg and a knife in her shoulder."

Sarah's chest felt tight, her eyes began to water. She moved her mouth to speak, to shout, to scream, but nothing came out. Not even air.

She looked at her son, not knowing if he was still her son. She tried to make the words to ask him.  
When she couldn't do that, she staggered out of the room, collapsing and sobbing just a few steps outside.

'Are you... still my boy?'

Scene 127: Sleeping Beauty

John's eyes flutter open. The first thing he sees is Cameron's face, as she lays on her side next to him.

It was how wanted to wake up every day.

It filled him with warmth to see her like this. She looked so peaceful. So beautiful. So... perfect.

'She's sleeping.' he thought, as he reached out to gently brush her hair from her face.

Her hand caught his, and her eyes snapped open. He heard the popping and he felt the pain as she crushed his hand, her eyes glowing red.

"I don't sleep."

Scene 128: Moment of Weakness

12:19pm 'Baum' residence, John's room.

Cameron had been monitoring John's vitals as he slept for the last 416 minutes. In the last few moments, his heart rate, respiration, skin temperature and salinity had increased. He was having a nightmare.

She spoke softly as she gently turned him over.

"John? It's ok, now John. Everything's all right." she smiled warmly at his face as she her scan told her that he was waking up.

His eyes opened slowly and he saw Cameron smiling at him.

"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" with inhuman speed, he leaped from the bed.

It was reflex. His body simply launched itself away from a perceived threat. His back colliding with a wooden bureau, his knee and elbow reaching the floor.

He scanned the room as though he had never been there before.

His eyes were feral, looking for an escape route.

"It's safe now John, you're home." Cameron was surprised by his reaction to her, but not by his overall behavior. She knew that it would take time for him to get over the things he had done- if he ever could.

When he looked at her, he seemed to realize what was going on.

"Cameron, are you... you?"

She was confused. She didn't know about his dreams.

He hadn't told her that he had dreamt of a normal life with her nearly every night.

He hadn't told her that in ever single one she had harmed or killed him.

"I don't understand." tilting her head slightly.

She didn't see how the response she gave could have helped, but it did. He calmed down. Letting himself fall onto his back to catch his breath, the pain from his meeting with the furniture setting in.

"John, you're safe now."

'No one is ever safe' he thought. Her words, or maybe her voice, were comforting anyway.

"I'm sorry. You didn-"

"You had a nightmare, John. I understand."

'No, you don't', again only himself.

Sarah ran in. From her face, she may have expected a triple-eight to be in the room.

"What's going on?!"

"Nothing." John answered, not seeming to acknowledge the concern in his mothers voice.

Cameron took her concerned eyes off of John only long enough to make eye contact with Sarah.

"He had a nightmare."

Sarah's fear evaporated, being replaced by sympathy and understanding.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I'm fine."

"John, I know a thing or two about nightmares..."

He looked at her like she had no idea what she was talking about.

"Are they the same thing? Night after night?"

He could tell from her face that they were.

Flashes of her son being killed in her last dream began to fill her mind.

"Yeah... I, um..."

She took a moment to force her emotions back down, she had to be strong for John.

"There's a reason I take sleeping pills, you know..."

Scene 129: All the King's Horses, and All the King's Men

The next day.

Sarah and John sit on a bench overlooking the ocean.

It had been so long since she had been able to spend time with her son, instead of the 'future leader of mankind'.

"I can't keep this up..." He stared into the distance, talking to no one in particular.

"I know." She reached out and rubbed his shoulder with a comforting hand.

"I can't keep this up, but I'm going to anyway."

When he turned to her, his eyes may have been focused on her, but they were looking somewhere else.

She knew what he was thinking about. She knew that he was thinking about the future.

Or, more accurately, the lack of one.

He had accepted his fate, and it scared her. She had always been afraid that he'd leave her, that he'd run away.

Somehow, she now felt the way she had when imagining coming home to an empty house and a note.

Her little boy was gone. It seemed like just yesterday he had turned sixteen. Now, looking into his eyes, he looked older. Much older.

She saw a combination of things in his eyes that she'd only ever seen in Derek's.

Hopelessness, regret, guilt, self-loathing and... resignation.

Where John had once had his father's kind eyes, she now saw the eyes a broken, 32 year old, TechCom officer.

Scene 130: House Arrest

'Baum' residence. John, Sarah have just returned. Having shadowed them without their knowledge, Cameron follows them in.

Derek is arguing with the T-880.

"What's going on here?" Sarah asked in the confident, demanding tone which she had lost for the past few days.

"Ask him." Derek pointed angrily at the T-880.

"I was ordered to keep subject 'Derek Reese' in this room."

"Well, it's ok for him to leave now." John said, feeling bad- but amused -that Derek had been held hostage by the machine.

"Thanks for your permission." Derek sneered as he started to leave the room.

The T-880 grabbed his shirt as he attempted to walk by.

"You must remain in this room."

"Let him go. I order you to let him go."

"Negative. I have been ordered by John Connor and Cameron Phillips to restrict the movements of Derek Reese to this room."

"Cam?"

"Let him go." she said.

The machine released Derek.

"This thing isn't a toy!" He shouted at John while pointing at the machine.

"It's built for war! You can't just have it babysit or do chores!" Derek was justified in his anger.

"You're right." John confirmed. "He's built for war, and we're going to war."

Before anyone could ask questions, he turned to T-880.

"Tell me everything you know about that T-1001. The one that looked like a woman in a red dress."

"The T-1001 is an advanced mod-"

"No, about that specific one. The one that Cameron was going to die fighting. How can we find it? How can we destroy it?"

"The T-1001 does not know our current location, nor is it aware of your appearance. It is unnecessary and tactically dangerous to engage it."

"It's here for a reason. It could bring about Judgment Day sooner. It could be assassinating Resistance leaders right now." John wasn't sure reasoning with the machine would work. It was obviously no Uncle Bob.

"I am unaware of its current location. However, between 4:00pm and 9:00pm on March 28th, 2008 it will terminate five opponents of the Automated Realtime Traffic Information Exchange program."

"I thought we stopped it." John cast an apologetic look at Cameron, having removed her chip for nothing.

"We did, that's why Skynet is stepping in." Sarah spoke up.

"So... we wait until the 28th?" John suddenly found everyone staring at him like he was a moron.

"What day do you think it is, John?" his mother asked.

"Wednesday..."

"John, it's Friday. Today's the 28th." Sarah said. For all of his attempts to take control he's still a teenager.

Sarah turned to the machine, her faith in her son's newfound maturity having waned slightly.

"Where?"

"I will take you. First, we must acquire the necessary equipment and weaponry to destroy it."

"Derek has an M-79." She thought that would be enough to convince the machine.

"I must acquire additional armament."

It began heading for the door.

"Wait. We'll come with you." John started heading to his room for his Glock.

"Negative. I do not require assistance."

***************************************************************************************


	4. Scenes 131 to 140

**Predaking50ae Scenes 131-140**

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Scene 131: Inner Demon

11:27am 3/28/08

John and Cameron sit at the Century Mall food court. After he spent fifteen minutes persuading her, Cameron had agreed to let him get her an order of nachos too.

"Well? What do you think?" John asked, using a corn chip to shovel globs of meat and cheese into his mouth.

"Humans seem to enjoy inefficient forms of sustenance. I don't understand why."

He looked disappointed.

"What about the taste?"

She looked down at her nachos.

"You can't taste?!"

"I can, I just shut it off."

"Why?"

She stared at her food, as if afraid to answer.

"Cameron?"

"I..."

"What?"

"I'm used to eating Sarah's cooking."

Finding no hint that she's joking, he begins laughing so hard that he nearly falls out of his chair.

"It wasn't that funny..."

John wipes the tears from his eyes.

"Cameron, you just told me that my mom's cooking is so bad, you've spent six months without a sense of taste. That's pretty funny."

"Gustation isn't necessary. My only reason to consume food is to maintain my biological covering."

A puzzled look overcame him. 'Atleast I'm not tilting my- damn it.'

She remembers that humans- and certainly not John -don't memorize dictionaries.

"It means tasting."

"Oh..."

As he began to ask his next question, his expression changed to one of apprehension.

"When you say 'biological covering'-"

"My living tissue."

"I know that. But, you refered to it as a 'covering'."

"It is."

Becoming annoyed at not being allowed to finish his question, he tries a more direct approach.

"Is that all it is to you? Do you care if you lose it?"

"John?"

"Do you care one way or the other about becoming just an endoskeleton?"

Cameron couldn't believe what he was asking.

"Of course I do!"

He was relieved, but unsatisfied.

"Why?"

"John, it's part of me. It's who I've been since I was built. I was designed to repla- "

She stops herself from saying it.

"I was designed to look like this. This is both who and what I am."

He seemed to be satisfied with her answer and returned to his nachos.

"Did you decide that you couldn't love me if I were an endoskeleton?"

The surprise caused his body to tense. His fingers tightened on the chip they had just picked up, snapping the part they held it by. He wouldn't even be able to buy time by chewing.

"Cameron... I lov-"

She put her hand on his. He was being scanned.

"Cameron. I love what's in here." he said, softly touching her CPU port with a fingertip.

She wasn't stupid. He hadn't answered her question.

"If I lost my biological covering, would you still love me?"

Even without the scan, she would have known that he was coming up with a way out.

"I love you. I don't see that changing."

She didn't have the answer she wanted.

"Please, John. Yes or no."

He believed that he would still love her for who she was, but the idea of sitting across the table from a bare endoskeleton made it difficult to keep his food down. The queasiness scared him.

'What if I think I'm telling the truth, but I'm not?'

'What if she mistakes the way I feel about endoskeletons for the way I feel about _her_?'

'What if she leaves me because she thinks I only care about the part of her that came from Allison Young?'

He made up his mind.

It was too late.

Cameron stood up from the table, using every bit of will she had to keep from crying.

Her question hadn't come from a need to be accepted as a purely cybernetic being. Although she could survive as such, she wouldn't want to. She also knew that no human- not even John -could ever look past such a monstrous appearance.

'If he only cares about my appearance, what happens to me when he finds _her_? I'm just a copy.'

"Cameron?"

She started walking toward the exit. He caught up to her and grabbed her wrist. She pulled free and continued.

"Cameron? Cameron stop."

She kept walking. He had to stop her now, before she decided to run- she was faster and she wouldn't tire.

He wrapped his arms around her from behind and whispered into her ear.

"Yes."

She turned around in his arms and looked into his eyes.

"Yes what?"

"I would still love you."

He was telling the truth, but she needed to know that he was answering _her _question.

"John, you would still love me if what?"

As he started to speak, she placed a hand on his neck to remind him that he was being scanned.

He leaned his forehead against hers, demonstrating that the scan didn't worry him. Looking into her eyes, he answered her question.

"Cameron, if you were an endoskeleton... I would still love you."

Scene 132: Breaking News

11:34am 'Baum' Residence.

Sarah has begun to detail strip her M4A1while the TV plays in the back ground.

"It appears that someone is attempting to escape from a National Guard armory, here in Los Angeles."

She nearly lost her grip on the weapon's buffer spring. She turns to the TV.

"This is live footage of Bridewell Street coming in from our KCBS news chopper. I'd like to remind everyone at home that this is live, unedited, and may be unsuitable for some viewers. Let's take a look."

Sarah can see smoke grenades all over the area.

A large man with a round object hanging on his back, is shown tossing two duffel bags into a police cruiser with one hand, while police and SWAT fire at him.

He appears undeterred by the shooting, and once inside the cruiser, begins to drive.

"Sources on the ground suggest that the man has been shot numerous times with no effect. One can't help but be reminded of nightmare that was the morning of February 28, 1997 when a robbery ended in a 44 minute shoot out with police, which left 17 people injured, and the both suspects dead. The suspects, of course, were wearing body armor."

'They think that a little kevlar or a trauma plate explains this?' she thought, '...and they put me in Pescadero...'

Scene 133: Let's Be Badguys

11:28am National Guard Armory. Bridewell Street, Los Angeles. It looks like a small warehouse, with a twenty foot wide garage door on the front. Military vehicles can be seen parked alongside the building. The perimeter is surrounded by a flimsy chainlink fence and shrubs, with a chainlink gate and a single guard.

There is an old M60 main battle tank on display outside the fence.

A car pulls up to the gate. The driver, a large man with a leather jacket and sunglasses, steps out and walks toward the M60 with a rope in his hands.

"Sir, you can't park here."

The large man ignores the young guard and begins climbing atop the tank.

"Sir, for your own safety you can't be up there."

The man grabbed the hatch and pulled, the metal began to groan. The locked hatch snapped open, and he continued to pull until it came off.

"Wh-wh-who-o-o-o...."

The T-880 threaded the rope through the handle of the hatch, tied it, then put it over his head as if it were a lightweight medallion.

He walked past the awestruck guardsman and ripped apart the chainlink gate, heading for the large garage door.

The T-880 put it's fingers under the middle of the door and lifted. The thin metal of the door gave, ripping like paper. Unsatisfied, the machine walked to one corner of the door and tried again. This time, the runner on which that side of the door was hung gave out, causing that side to fall from the ceiling.

Three guardsmen- who were supposed to be replacing the breaks on a Humvee -jumped up from their seats around a small card table, their bets and hands seemed unimportant when the ceiling seemed to be falling apart around them.

Seeing a man coming through the doorway, they scattered. One ran toward weapons storage, one ran for the back door, and one ran for the nearest phone.

The T-880 walked toward the armory door as the guardsman tried to get in without the keys.

The machine pushed him aside without harming him, and punched the door frame next to the lock, obliterating a chunk of cinder block wall and causing the door to swing open gently.

Within the machine saw the weapons arranged in what looked like simple gun racks, but which actually held the weapons securely locked with a metal bar. He produced two large, folded duffel bags from beneath his jacket. He had previously reinforced them with nylon rope to support the large amount of weight he intended to carry.

The machine began scanning the weapons, bending the barrels of any weapon with a threat level greater that 'none'.

Beretta M92F - Threat Level - None  
Armalite M4A1 - Threat Level - Minimal  
Colt M16A1 - Threat Level - Minimal  
FN Minimi Variant M249 - Threat Level - Minimal  
U.S. MG Caliber 7.62 Variant M60E3 - Threat Level - Moderate. He ripped off the metal bar that held them in place, and put two in a duffel bag before continuing to destroy the rest.  
Remingtion 870 - Threat Level - Minimal  
M203A1 40mm - Threat Level - High. He freed all four and dropped them into the duffel bag.  
M79 40mm - Threat Level - High. He liberated these, as well.  
Barrett M82A1 12.7x99mm - Threat Level - High. He placed it butt first into the bag, several feet of barrel protruding from the opening.

"H-h-h-how d-di-did you..." The guardsman who had been attempting to get in was now standing there, having seen this 'man' punch through a wall and bend two dozen steel barrels.

He didn't answer, he simply began placing entire ammunition cans into his second bag. Hundreds of rounds of .50BMG, thousands of 7.62mm, and all 2 cans of high explosive 40mm grenades.

"Wh-what are....?"

Then the guardsman noticed the hand of this 'man'. The flesh had been been peeled back by its meeting with the wall, exposing pistons and metal where tendons and bone should have been. There were faint zipping and whirring sounds coming from it. He felt light headed. He fainted.

The machine noticed a can of smoke grenades, and dumped them into one of the bags for easy access.  
Stepping over the unconscious guardsman, he began walking toward the exit.

He had taken too long to identify the correct ammunition- the paint on some of the cans had been destroyed, while others had been reused without being relabeled.

Five police cruisers, 12 officers, a SWAT van, and a 4 man SWAT team greeted him.

This was why he had taken the hatch from the tank.

While they had no weapons that could cause any real damage, he was unique. His individually machined parts were irreplaceable in this time. He would have to use substandard materials for repairs. Every bit of damage that he received would bring him closer and closer to being just like any mass production T-888, and his mission could require him to remain combat effective for decades.

This confrontation would have been easy for the machine, if John hadn't ordered him in 2027 not to kill civilians.

The T-880 began hurling smoke grenades with his free hand as he switched to infrared and began searching for the nearest escape vehicle.

The sight of incoming grenades cause all of the officers and all but two SWAT members to scatter- they were military veterans and recognized the grenades as harmless M18's. The two opened fire on the man, one with an MP5A2, the other with an M4A1.

The machine moved his makeshift shield higher to protect his head and neck from the incoming fire.

The other officers and SWAT members joined in as soon as they realized what was happening.

Scanning the patrolmen, he found among them six Glock 22's, three Ithaca M37 shotguns, one Remington 870, and two Colt AR-15's- his data on local law enforcement told him that they had most likely been converted to semi-auto.

The SWAT officers had one MP5A2, two M4A1's, and one M3 Benelli.

Keeping the hatch between himself and the .223's, he began heading for the police cruiser parked farthest from the others.

Dropping several more smoke grenades, he swung the hatch over his back, protecting the lighter armor there from the incoming gunfire as he turned his back to the officers.

Scene 134: First Date

12:17pm John and Cameron are sitting at the same picnic table, in the same park that Derek had taken him to on his birthday.

Cameron has been somewhat distant since their time at the mall. While she hadn't seemed to be sad or angry, she obviously wasn't happy with whatever her scan had told her.

'How do I cheer up a girl who doesn't like chocolates, flowers, jewelry, or even clothing?'

He didn't know the answer. He had no idea what to do, but he had to try something. Even something that he knew wouldn't cheer her up.

He walked over to a street vendor.

"Two small chocolate creamies, please."

After a minute, he returned to Cameron and held one out to her, smiling.

She cast a disappointed look at the icecream. Then she smiled at him.

"You don't know what you're doing, do you?" she said.

He looked confused, 'Damn it, I'm tilting my head again.'

"You've never done this before." she clarified.

He blushed slightly. A cyborg who often struggled with the simplest of human interactions, now appeared to be suggesting that he'd never had a girlfriend before.

"Sure I have." he lied.

He instantly began worrying that she'd assume he meant he'd done this with Riley. Fortunately for him, she had followed every single 'date', except for Mexico, and the night that he had picked Riley up at a party.

Her smile waned, and she looked at him expectantly. She wanted him to continue his attempts.

"Look, I know that I'm no Casanova, but I'm trying."

She looked genuinely insulted.

"Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt, like most 18th century noblemen, had many sexual partners without attempting to form any long term commitments."

His face went pale. 'I need to hide her encyclopedias...'

"Is that your intention?" she continued.  
"What?! No! I-"

She began laughing at him and took the ice cream.

"I fooled you again."

Scene 135: Bits and Pieces

12:43pm Derek, out for a run, stops to buy a hotdog at the same park he had brought John to on his birthday.

He almost hadn't bothered looking around, since he knew that his younger self and little brother would be in school.

He didn't know what to think of the sight before him.

His nephew was eating ice cream with the machine. They were too far away for him to hear what they were saying, but he could see that they looked happy. He didn't like it, but the machine seemed almost like it could be good for him, especially after all he'd been through lately.

'If you can find a shred of happiness with someone- some_thing_ -that you don't have to worry about getting shot, I won't try to stop you.'

'Plus, if it doesn't work out, maybe you'll realize what these things really are.'

Not caring how suspicious he looked to others, he began sneaking closer.

With every step he could make out more and more syllables, until most words were audible.

"Cameron, I ---- things -- stay like ---- forever."

"--- mean -- fighting?"

"--, - don't want -- -- fight anymore."

"--- ---- just ----- Skynet?"

"Yeah, ----- ------- ---- I'm saying. -- ---- ---- let Skynet win."

"Okay, John."

Then as John put his arm around the machine, and noticed Derek standing there.

It was the first time that he'd seen his nephew's face brighten at his presence.

"Hey, Derek! Come on over and sit down!"

He did.

"So, what were you two talking about?"

"We-"

The machine interrupted.

"We were talking about the future."

His suspicions seemed warranted.

"Is that a fact? What about it?"

John began to speak, but his cellphone went off.

When he answered it, Derek could here panicked shouts from the other end.

"Hello? When? Why? Isn't there a manhunt? Okay, we'll be back soon."

His nephew looked worried, but not as worried as he himself did.

"What was that about?" Derek asked.

John avoided eyecontact.

"Mom says our new friend just robbed the National Guard."

He frowned at his nephew and shook his head.

"That thing isn't your friend. Now the the police, FBI, Homeland Security, and everyone else will be scouring the city for us."

His nephew's face took on a mixture of determination and hatred.

"I'll deal with it."

"These things need to be kept on a short leash, they're dangerous. They're not toys. They're not your friends.

All they do is mess with your head!"

"What the hell is your problem!" John shouted, throwing his cone to the ground as the stood up and turned to face his uncle.

Derek noticed that John was carrying, though he couldn't be sure if John had wanted him to see the weapon, or if he'd just forgotten about it.

The machine grabbed his arm.

"John, calm down. He doesn't understand. It's okay, he's just looking out for you."

Derek realized that he couldn't win, not while that thing was pretending to be the voice of reason _and _the victim.

It was playing John, and John couldn't even see it.

Scene 136: Growing up

12:58pm 'Baum' residence.

Derek, John and Cameron have just arrived to find several guns and ammo cans scattered haphazardly on the living room floor.

Sarah is pulling bullets out of the T-880's back, while it was pulling out the ones it could reach. She seemed to have gotten sick of bandaging him up after the first thirty or so, and was now splashing him with rubbing alcohol before slapping squares of duct tape over the wounds.

"He said that these will heal." Sarah said when she noticed John and the others.

Nodding to the guns, John asked the obvious question.

"What's with the fire power?"

"Additional armament was required for our engagement with the T-1001." the machine answered.

John picked up an M60 and dropped it in disapproval, shaking his head at the Barrett rifle as well.

"These are no good for one of those things. Bullets just slow them down."

"Those weapons are not for the T-1001." the machine stated monotonously.

"Then what are they for?"

"Even without our intervention, Judgment Day will not happen for ano-"

Sarah cut the machine off.

"He stole them so that we'd be able to handle triple-eights."

John nodded.

"Good work."

Derek was fuming.

"Good work?! The whole damned country is going to be after us!"

"Negative. The authorities believe me to be destroyed."

Everyone but Sarah and John- the former having told the latter -are surprised.

"He drove off of a bridge, then ran part way back here under water." Sarah explained.

John just smirked at his uncle.

"In the future I told him how to get away with something this."

Derek was even more upset by the haughty attitude his nephew displayed.

"John! You can't just ride on the coattails of your future self! You-aren't-General-Connor!" he jammed his finger into John's chest with each of the last four words.

John didn't flinch, blink, or lose his arrogant smirk.

"What would General Connor do right now?"

Derek realized that he was about to lose this one too. Seeing no alternative, he shook his head at his own failure and answered truthfully.

"I don't know."

"THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP!" John released the tiniest bit of his pent up rage, before instantly returning to his previous demeanor.

Derek could honestly say that he was afraid of his nephew in that instant. In the eyes of a sixteen year old boy, Derek had just seen the only thing that ever scared him: General Connor.

In that brief moment, he glimpsed the man whom he'd seen execute traitors, deserters, and criminals.

It wasn't that the 'savior' didn't have a conscience, he wasn't a monster.

Morale was in short supply, and anyone who threatened it was literally threatening the fate of the human race.

His problem- or was it his saving grace? -was that when he knew something had to be done, he wouldn't _think_ about it, he would _do_ it.

Scene 137: Will Anyone Else Attempt to Fill His Shoes?

2027 TechCom HQ.

Derek is in his bunk, having arrived the previous day after being allowed to escape from Skynet's torture house.

He's awoken by some muffled shouts.

Derek 'borrows' a nearby Desert Eagle and walks to the metal door.

He can hear a several men shouting, but he doesn't recognize the voices, and he can't tell what they're saying.

Opening the door, he heads in the direction of the voices, until he can make them out.

"Shut up before someone hears you!" a female voice says.

"Those things can't be trusted! They can just go bad for no reason and kill us all!" this one a man.

"Connor knows what he's doing!" the woman again.

"How do we know that he hasn't already been replaced?" a second man says.

Derek reaches the corner and peers around, spotting two men and a woman talking and a fourth person standing in the shadows, unnoticed by the others. He knows that the fourth figure has spotted him, but he can't tell who it is.

"Replaced by who?" the woman asks.

"More like _what_." the second man said.

"You've got a point. Nobody's been captured and escaped that many times." the first man says.

"Exactly, how many times has be been one of, I dunno, like three survivors after a mission. Now all of a sudden the bases are filling up with metal!"

The figure steps out of the shadows and Derek lets out a gasp.

The three people look in the direction of the sound.

The fourth figure speaks.

"Don't look at him, look at ME!"

The three shrink. Derek can see that they're shaking as they snap to attention.

"General Connor, SIR!" they say in unison, saluting.

He looks at the woman's uniform.

"Get the hell out of here, private." he doesn't even bother with a formal order.

"Yes sir!" she runs back to the barracks area like a small girl fleeing from Skynet's forces.

When she's out of sight, Connor removes his rank and nametag from his uniform, placing them in his pocket.

"At ease, I'm not a general right now."

One seems relieved, the other seems far more terrified.

"So, you think that I'm a machine?"

Connor began rolling up his sleeves

"No, sir!" they say in unison.

"I told you I'm not a general right now." Connor growled.

"Sorry, s-" they both stopped at the same time.

"You think that I'm a machine? Hit me. See if you can find any metal."

"S-?" one of them began, being cut off by Connor's knuckles meeting his larynx.

"Try to hit something metal." he said calmly.

People were beginning to arrive from their quarters, obviously, the woman had informed them of this confrontation.

"This is our chance, man. We know that he's crazy, we can get rid of him."

"All right..." the man holding his throat said.

The first man took pulled his Ka-Bar as the other man put up his fists and began moving to one side of the 'General'.

"Good. With that, this won't take long." Connor regarded the knife.

The man slashed at him and Connor intentionally blocked the blade with his bare forearm.

"Find any metal?" Connor seemed to draw strength from the pain.

Not waiting for a reply, he grabbed the blade with his bare hand, twisting it out of the man's grip.

Then, in one motion, flipped it over in his hand and brought it up with all his might into the man's lower jaw, the blade penetrating the roof of the mouth and into the brain.

The crowd which had gathered seemed to gasp in unison.

The man began to twitch as Connor withdrew the blade.

He then held the soiled weapon by the blade, offering its handle to the other man.

Derek could hear people in the crowd whispering 'Run.' to themselves, some appeared to be praying for the man- not for the man to survive, but rather for the man to not survive for too long.

The man began to back away.

"Take it."

"No..."

"Take it."

"I won't..."

"Fine..."

Connor's face darkened as he fed the weapon into his other hand.

"...then I'll keep it."

Almost too fast for Derek to see, Connor took sever steps forward, delivering a single upward slash that started at the the man's thigh, passed through air, then met the man's stomach and chest. The man now had a nearly two foot long cut on his torso, but Derek knew that the comparatively small thigh wound had already ended this fight.

The man screamed in agony as he began trying to fight back. Every attempt was blocked with the blade, as blood gushed from his thigh wound.

After the longest few seconds of Derek's- or the man's -life, the man collapsed, going into shock, his blood pressure dropping.

The crowd began to talk quietly about the sight.

Connor regarded the crowd with a stern look, causing them to going silent. Everyone started to back away, then turned and ran toward their quarters. Except for Derek, who stood rooted in place.

A T-888 came around the corner and was about to remove the bodies, when Connor stopped him. He took the machine's sidearm.

"This one's not quite dead." and put a bullet in the man's brain as he bled out.

He replaced the triple-eight's sidearm.

"Carry on."

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 138: The Past is Prologue

4:17pm The home of one of the T-1001's targets. It's an expensive looking place, with one side consisting of mostly glass. There's a pool outside.

Derek and Sarah sit in Jesse's car, watching for any sign of the T-1001.

Derek has his M-79, Sarah has her M4A1 with an M203A1 attached to it. Each have 10 extra grenades in belt pouches, as well as Derek carrying a can of thermite.

Sarah seems lost in thought.

Derek notices that Sarah doesn't seem have her mind on the mission. It's unlike her, and it worries him.

"You all right?"

She looks at him for a moment, needing to deduce what he had said.

"Yeah, this house... it just reminds me of something."

"What's that?"

"Dyson..."

"John says that you delayed Judgment Day by 14 years, that's a good memory."

She scowled at him, remembering his murder of Andy Goode and subsequent denial.

"I tried to MURDER a good man! A family man! Then I got him killed!"

"You saved a lot of families. In the future, you're a legend."

This seemed to make things worse.

"What do people say about Miles Dyson?"

"I asked John for the whole story last year. That was the first time I'd heard of the guy..."

This didn't make her as angry as Derek had feared it might.

"What did he tell you about him?"

"He said that he helped get you guys into CyberDyne. That he destroyed his own work, helped recover the T-800 parts, got cut to pieces by SWAT, then stayed behind and blew up the lab after you guys escaped."

Sarah was glad that her son was giving credit where it was due.

"Where does that leave me?"

Derek's expression became as close to sympathetic as he could ever muster.

"You think that surviving makes you any less a hero? I know a lot of guys YOUR SON has called heroes. They've done things that have saved a few people, or a few dozen, but you saved a few _billion_."

Sarah started picturing her son needing to hand out awards and commendations in his 'free time'. She hadn't thought about the specifics of her son's future. She knew before he was born that he'd have to fight a war, but she'd somehow avoided picturing it. For the first time, she began thinking of 'General Connor' as her son, rather than some mysterious force that fought evil on the weekdays, but spent weekends with a wife and kids.

"What's he like in the future?"

Derek tensed.

"You mean John?"

Sarah nodded.

After taking a few seconds to come with an adequate half-truth, he answered.

"He's strong. He does a lot of things that other men wouldn't be able to do. He has a real knack for inspiring loyalty. More people would give their lives to protect him than any other person in history."

Sarah smiled.

'I hope I live to see him', she thought.

'I hope she doesn't live to see him', Derek thought.

Scene 139: My Queen

4:39pm A hotel. The building is mostly white, with a red tile roof. It contains one of the T-1001's targets.

A Dodge pickup sits outside. Cameron is at the wheel, John is beside her, and the T-880 sits in the backseat.

Cameron and John have M4A1's equipped with M203A1's, while the T-880 conceals two M-79's.

Cameron has a surplus medic bag containing 14 additional grenades, John has 6 spares jammed in his pockets, and the T-880 has a small black bag over his shoulder containing thermite and 40 grenades- though they had tried to explain to him that he couldn't fire more than a handful per minute.

Cameron wouldn't leave John, John wouldn't leave Cameron, the T-880 wouldn't leave either of them.

The T-880 continuously scans for its target in infrared.

John hangs his head in shame.

"What is it, John?"

"He shouldn't be here. My mom and Derek are out there, and I'm sitting here with both of you."

She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"John, it they'll be fine. They've both been doing this longer than you've been alive."

His face became serious.

"I'm the one who will always survive. It isn't right."

Cameron smiled. Right now, John was reminding her of the one she had known from 2027. The one who was more concerned about the health and safety of those under his command, than he was of his own.

"John, it'll be all right. Your mother and Derek are soldiers they-" John cut her off.

"Die. Soldiers die, Cameron. They're pawns."

Cameron was taken aback, his compassion had instantly turned to cynicism.

"What about knights? Rooks? Bishops? They can take care of themselves."

He opened his mouth to say something but stopped as his eyes began to water. He closed them and gritted his teeth, trying to force his emotions back inside.

"John?"

He swallowed, then opened his eyes and looked at her. Despite his best efforts, tears flowed freely.

"In chess, even the queen is expendable."

Scene 140: Luck of the Draw

6:17pm Sarah and Derek are still outside, waiting for the T-1001.

Derek is comfortable, while Sarah appears worried.

"Sarah, the machine said 'between 4 and 9pm', it'll be here."

She gave him that scowl he'd been getting used to as of late.

"He said that it would kill FIVE people during that time! We chose to cover TWO targets!"

He once again attempted a human facial expression of sympathy.

"If we had tried to cover all five of that things targets, we wouldn't have a chance of spotting it."

Derek's expression hadn't carried into his tone, which was somewhat condescending.

"And you think that makes it okay?"

"I do... so will John."

She was shocked.

"How dare you! My son will never be all right with sacri-" she remembered Kyle.

She thought of the one man she'd truly loved. Sarah had tried to start a life with Charley, but it wasn't the same.

'Could my boy watch innocent people die, and feel nothing?'

'He sent a machine to protect a terminator he'd fallen in love with, why hadn't he sent a machine to save Kyle?'

It became difficult to breath, difficult to speak. Still feeling some distrust toward Derek, she didn't want to show weakness in front of him. She looked away from him and out the window, trying not to cry.

"Sarah."

"Sarah."

"Sarah!"

"WHAT!"

"It's here."

***************************************************************************************


	5. Scenes 141 to 150

**Predaking50ae Scenes 141-150**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 141: ETA, Too Far Away

6:18pm John, Cameron, and the T-880 sit, watching for their target.

Cameron is making an effort to coax out more pent up rage and sorrow from John.

"John, I can't promise that I'll always be here..."

She smiled at him, before continuing.

"...but I am made of hyper-alloy, you know?"

He shook his head.

"That makes it worse. You always put yourself between me and my attackers. You fight without weapons, when you should retreat and find one. You fight when you're outmatched, because... I don't even know why!"

"It's because I don't want anything to happen to you."

"What about something happening to you? That would be worse than if I died."

She frowned at him.

"That's selfish. Do you think that I want to watch you die, any more than you want to lose me?"

"Cam,-"

"Do you think that?"

"That's not what I meant! The things you do... sometimes... they seem suicidal."

"John, I can fight other terminators, you can't. If you could, this conversation would be reversed."

John's cellphone rings.

"Did you spot it?! YOU DID!? BE CAREFUL!"

Cameron was already heading for Sarah and Derek's location.

The T-880 spoke.

"Estimated travel time, seven minutes."

Scene 142: Warzone, 2008

6:20pm Derek and Sarah have identified the 'woman in red', and Sarah has just hung up on her son.

They step out of the car, weapons in a low ready position.

Derek signals for Sarah to move to their right, toward a parked van.

Once she's in position, they nod in understanding, before bringing their weapons up and firing.

Sarah hits the T-1001 with .223 fire, causing it to stop and try to heal itself, it then tries to move out of the open- it's too late, Derek's 40mm HE grenade is already in the air.

His aim is true, the grenade hits his target in the lower torso, splattering the shape-shifter like water.

He begins to reload while Sarah fires her own grenade at the rapidly reforming mass, scattering the droplets that had attempted to form.

The creature tries again, this time forming recognizable legs while Derek starts to reload.

"It's faster than the other one!" Sarah shouted.

Derek didn't have time to think about it, he fired. Again, spreading the mimetic polyalloy before it could reform.

Sarah has reloaded, but she's taken too long.

The liquid metal that had started to pool, moves behind a small stone flower bed.

Sarah screams in frustration as she fires her grenade to the the side of the its cover, hoping to splash it out to into the open.

It doesn't work.

Derek holds his fire, wait for a target.

Sarah reloads her M4 and M203, also waiting for a target.

They see nothing.

'Did it retreat?' Derek wondered.

There is no sign of it.

'Is it damaged?' Sarah asked herself.

'What was that?!' she saw something move.

"Derek!"

Sarah begins to fire her M4 at the nearly imperceptable form that has slowly been oozing toward him.

He jumps diagonally backward, as it sends out a blade, slicing the side of his neck. It's a harmless cut, but not by much.

The glob receives a can of thermite from Derek for its trouble

Sarah lights a flare from her belt.

"NO STOP!" he shouts.

She's already thrown it.

The fine powder lingers in the air, Derek dives over his car as the airborne dust burns so rapidly that it appears to explode.

The side of his car crumples from the pressure, and is scorched by the heat.

A shower of glass sprays over a stunned Derek.

Derek's thermite, which a fraction of a second later may have ended this fight, has now been lost.

Scene 143: Am I Broken?

6:22pm Cameron is driving at 90mph, two and half times what the T-880 had anticipated.

She calculates that they'll arrive in one minute.

John is much calmer than Cameron would have expected. He's obviously terrified that they'll be too late, but a few weeks earlier he would have been shaking and crying.

Now he sits clutching his rifle and looking out the window, trying to keep his breathing and heart rate slow.

She doesn't know if it's good or bad that he seems almost used to this.

Someday, he'll need to stay calm.

He'll need to fight his human systems for control of his mind and his body.

He'll need to fight the adrenaline.

He'll need to fight the fear.

The pain.

The uncertainty.

'But... John won't have to do that for years.' Cameron thought.

'Is this a good thing?'

'Did something inside him snap?'

'I can't be fixed, maybe he can't either?'

Little did she know, he was asking himself similar questions.

"What should I feel? Right now. What should I feel?"

Cameron was surprised.

'Is he asking me, or himself?'

"What should I be feeling?" he looks at Cameron.

She tries to come up with something neutral. Something which wouldn't scare him about his mother's chances or his possible loss of humanity.

"You should feel ready."

"I do."

That worried her.

Scene 144: Holding out for a Hero

6:23pm Sarah has just dragged a semi-conscious Derek into the middle of the street. The car provided too easy concealment for the liquid metal enemy.

With her last grenade loaded into her weapon, she scans 360 degrees. Seeing nothing, she reaches for Derek's grenade pouches.

She hears squealing tires and a roaring motor.

Turning, Sarah sees a familiar set of headlights.

'The cavalry has arrived.'

She feels something bite her upper back.

She sees the silvery red spike protruding from just above her right breast.

It retracts.

She starts to fall, more out of surprise than anything else.

Steadying herself, she's turns around and begins emptying her M4 into the nearly fully formed T-1001, while backpedaling.

Another bite, this time through her left shoulder above the collar bone.

She nearly drops her weapon, but she's been here before.

'I love you, John'

"I WON'T LET YOU TOUCH HIM YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"

Scene 145: A Glimpse of the Future

6:23pm Cameron brings the Dodge around a sharp corner and onto the final stretch of road.

With so little weight over the drive wheels, the pickup loses traction and nearly spins out of control.

Using nearly superhuman calm and reflexes, Cameron is able to maintain control, leaving rubber on the road and the sound of screeching tires echoing through the evening air.

Their target comes into view sooner for Cameron's eyes than it does for John's.

Cameron wishes that she could just turn around and take John home, she doesn't want him to see this.

As the truck nears its destination, the sight becomes clearer and clearer to John as well.

"Mom?"

He squints, trying to see what's happening.

It seems like an eternity, but it's only seconds.

"She's all right!" his fears are replaced with relief.

"Look away, John. Close your eyes." Cameron's voice was desperate, pleading.

Something came into view...

The T-1001 was reforming behind his mother, and she was too distracted by his arrival to notice.

"MOM!"

He could see his mother flinch, and he knew that she'd been stabbed.

He could see his mother's face, silently begging him to run, to get away while he still could.

After a moment of staring at him, she turned toward the creature, raising her gun and firing.

He saw her backing away from it, she looked like she'd be okay.

Then he saw the blade pierce her shoulder, but she kept firing.

She was going to fight till the end.

'Why doesn't she just run? We're here, now! I'm here, now!'

John realized that it was because of him.

She would die before she allowed him fight that thing in her place, before she let him risk his life for hers.

He was too important, not to humanity, to her.

None of this, not the fighting, not the running, none of it, had ever been about the future of three billion lives.

It had all been for the future of one life. Her son's life.

Cameron expected John to crack.

To break down and cry.

It's what humans do.

It's what she tried so hard not to do.

But he didn't.

He just clenched his teeth, tightening his grip on his M4, and struggling to breathe slowly.

Tears came, but he made no sound, or maybe he just couldn't hear himself.

Cameron was going to ram the creature with the truck, but Derek was laying in the street and Sarah wouldn't budge.

'Why won't she just run?' she thought to herself.

John knew the answer.

The T-1001 began projecting a blade- not a spike, but a sword -as Cameron gave up on her attempt to ram the creature, swerving to avoid Sarah.

There was a rush of air and a loud bang.

The T-880 had opened the back door at the perfect moment, bypassing Sarah but hitting their liquid adversary with nearly three tons of man and machine.

The door gave, but the machine's arm didn't. The T-1001 was hurled away from Sarah, partially intact.

The anti-lock breaks made it difficult to stop, but with the shape shifter tumbling down the street away from Sarah, it didn't matter.

Climbing out of the vehicle, John sprinted back toward his mother, the T-880 and Cameron advancing on the rapidly reforming mass.

John reached her and saw three wounds in her chest, the largest of which was in the center.

He began applying pressure to two of them, but he knew that he couldn't do anything for her. Not in the street.

"Mom! Hang on! I'm here! You're okay now!"

He wasn't calm, but he didn't cry. Crying wouldn't help her.

"John... I'm sorry..."

"NO! Don't say that! I should have been here sooner, you shouldn't have been alone!"

He couldn't hold back, he began to cry.

She put her hand on his cheek, using her thumb to wipe away some of his tears.

"You've... grown up so much... I'm so proud of you..."

Derek started waking up, a few feet away.

"DEREK! GET HER OUT OF HERE, NOW!"

It wasn't a request. It was an order.

"...Yes, Sir." in his daze, he didn't seem realize that this was his sixteen year old nephew, and not the respected leader of the Resistance.

Derek picked Sarah up and staggered toward the Dodge, still not fully recovered from the blast.

Certain Derek would take her to safety, John picked up his weapon and began running toward the T-1001.

Cameron and the T-880 had kept firing grenades at it, with the machine spreading thermite as he walked.

When John was near enough, he began to fire.

The bullets did little more than demonstrate his rage. He was screaming at the top of his lungs.

"IT'S NEVER ENOUGH! YOU TAKE EVERYTHING!"

Cameron filtered out his voice. His pained cries were too much. She wouldn't be able to fight while thinking about his suffering.

John saw what the T-880 and Cameron hadn't noticed.

Most of the of liquid metal was pooling in a shallow ditch.

It was close to Cameron.

"CAMERON!"

She couldn't hear him.

"CAMERON, BEHIND YOU!"

He saw the creature forming behind her, preparing to strike.

Something inside him snapped.

His pain fell away, replaced with determination and confidence.

'You won't take her too.'

The adrenaline did its job, but it didn't take over.

His vision narrowed, until all he could see was the silver form. It looked as if it were close enough for him to touch.

'I won't let you take her.'

Everything around him slowed down. He felt as though he were the only one who could move.

'You can't take her from me...'

He wasn't in pain. He wasn't afraid. He was... calm.

'...because I won't let you.'

He slowly squeezed the trigger of the M203.

He felt the recoil, but he didn't hear anything. It was silent. Peaceful.

The the grenade hit the creature, stopping inside it, then blasting the liquid metal harmlessly in all directions.

Cameron realized what had happened as she turned toward the blast.

She stopped filtering John's voice and enhanced the audio.

She could just make out his words. He was whispering to himself to reaffirm his resolve.

"I won't let you take her from me."

The T-880 pulled a flare from its bag, igniting the thermite it had been spreading since the fight began, destroying nearly a third of the creature's mass.

The hobbled but not defeated monster, kept trying to reform.

Again and again Cameron, John, and the machine blasted it apart.

It seemed to be reforming more and more slowly.

'Is it damaged?' John wondered.

Their guardian threw more thermite onto the creature, igniting it with another flare, and burning away most of the mimetic polyalloy.

The small amount that was left tried to escape. It tried to reach a manhole. The T-880 intercepted, pouring thermite along the ground between the T-1001 and its destination.

John retrieved and lit a flare from the T-880's bag, and held it.

As the metal flowed over the thermite he dropped the flare, burning what little remained.

Scene 146: Doctor Who?

6:40pm Sarah has lost a lot of blood, and her lungs have collapsed.

She should have been laid on backseat, but the destroyed back door couldn't be shut.

She had spent the last quarter hour sitting unconscious in the front seat, held up only by her seatbelt.

Derek has stopped the truck outside of a dilapidated, one story building.

This is the 'office' of a man who was once a well known and respected surgeon.

Gambling, drug addiction, and drunkenly botching an appendectomy had helped to relieve him of his prestige.

Business was good, however. Many- including Resistance fighters -liked having a doctor who didn't care if you showed up in handcuffs and a blaze orange jumpsuit... just so long as you could pay.

Derek doesn't know if he has made it in time. He doesn't even know if anyone is here.

Jumping from the vehicle, he rushes to the passenger side.

Scooping Sarah up, he begins heading for the front door of the building.

Getting closer, he can tell that someone is moving around inside.

'Not just yet, Kyle', he thinks to himself.

He doesn't worry about knocking- he has his hands full.

Kicking open the door, he begins shouting at the man before him.

"Doc! Doc, she's been stabbed!"

The man quickly pushes soda cans and half-eaten fastfood off of the small operating table.

"Put her over her."

Derek sets her down on the table.

The doctor looks her over quickly, like he's inspecting merchandise.

"Three wounds. Collapsed lung. Severe blood loss."

He turns her onto her side to look at her back.

"Two of them through and through..."

He drops her onto her back again and jams a finger into the large wound in the center of her chest, feeling cartilage.

"This one's shallow. Not even through the sternum."

"Can you save her!"

He pauses for a moment, then looks at Derek.

"One hundred-fifty thousand."

"Done."

The docter eyes him for a moment, before donning rubber gloves and retrieving his recently boiled tools.

"She'll need blood, what's your type?" he asks while beginning to cut away her shirt.

"AB negative, but she's O negative."

The doctor shook his head.

"That's very bad. Does she have any family?"

"Just a son, but his blood type is the same as mine."

The man rests his hands on the table and looks at him over his glasses.

"Are you certain?"

Derek nodded.

"Yeah, he gave me some of his once."

The doctor furrows his brow at Derek and looks as if he's going to hurl the scissors at him.

"You moron! If her son is AB negative, then she can't be O anything! In order to be AB you have to receive A from one parent and B from the other!"

Scene 147: Overdrive

7:15pm 'Baum' residence - Sarah's bed.

Cameron sits, holding John in her arms, attempting to comfort him.

John's calm, self-assured manner had completely vanished the moment that the T-1001 had been destroyed, and reality set in. Without something to fight, the world had come rushing back to him.

He has since been shaking and crying uncontrollably, repeatedly alternating between calling his uncle and his mother.

Derek had damaged his cellphone by landing on it, while diving over his car.

Sarah's had been left in Derek's car, she hadn't wasted time pocketing it after calling John.

Cameron chooses her words carefully, trying not to give John false hope.

She knows that Sarah doesn't like people being in her room, and wonders why John went straight in when they reached the house.

'He seemed to expect to see her standing here. Didn't he know that she wouldn't be? I don't understand. Why would he have to check?'

She speaks softly.

"John, I'm here with you."

He tries calling his mother's cell.

"You're safe now."

He tries calling Derek while answering her.

"My mom isn't. I was so close. I was right there, but I couldn't even save my own mother."

John remembers seeing his mother's body pierced by the blade, and begins crying too hard to speak.

Smiling into his eyes, she sees the John she knew in 2027 staring back at her. The one who sobbed as he told her about his mother's long, painful battle with cancer. The only battle she'd ever lost.

"John, you saved me. You were there when I needed you."

For a moment he stares into her eyes. Then he turns away from her and shouts. It's as if he's trying to punish himself for thinking, if only for a second, that he'd done anything right.

"I wasn't there for her and now she's dead!"

She puts a hand on his cheek, forcing him to look at her.

"You don't know that, John."

"Yes I do. I saw her. No one could survive that."

She pulls him closer and holds him tighter as he cries on her shoulder.

"John, if Derek didn't find her some help, he would have called by now."

He doesn't say anything, he just continues to cry.

"He hasn't called, so he must still be trying to help her."

The sound of a closing door and footsteps comes from downstairs.

John starts to get up, but Cameron holds him in place like a vise.

It's just the T-880 returning after getting rid of the vehicle they stole to get home.

"John, it's not Derek."

Scene 148: Divine Intervention

7:22pm The scene of the battle.

Police have cordoned off the area, and are taking statements from those who live in the neighborhood.

One person has been allowed through the police line. He had a close friend in the department.

A friend who had, for old times sake, agreed to inform him of anything 'unnatural'.

The man has just begun searching a destroyed car.

"What's this?" he says to himself.

He picks up a cellphone. While keeping it low enough that the police can't see it, he checks the numbers, dates, and names.

He sees 'John', 'Cameron', 'Derek', and 'Home' listed under contacts.

'Sarah!'

The phone rings and informs him that it's an incoming call from 'John'.

He answers the phone, but says nothing.

"MOM?! DEREK?! IS SHE OKAY?! DID SHE MAKE IT?!"

He can tell that John has been crying.

The man swallows.

"I don't know."

"WHO IS THIS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY MOTHER!"

"It's Ellison. I don't know where your mother is."

"WHERE DID YOU GET HER PHONE!"

"Here. At what I assume is the last place you saw her."

Silence comes from John's end.

"Is there anything I should know? Anything I can do to help 'sanitize' the area before forensics arrives?"

"No... Just keep the phone away from them."

"I will, and John? Have a little faith. Your mother will be fine. She can't die."

The sobbing seems to slow, even at the words of a relative stranger. Ellison continues.

"The Lord won't let-"

Ellison hears a snort as John hangs up.

Ellison sighs and pockets the phone.

Scene 149: The Price is Right

8:04pm 'Baum' residence - Sarah's bed.

An hour and a half have passed since the destruction of the T-1001

Having monitored John's vitals for most of that time, Cameron is surprised that he hasn't passed out.

John's response to his torture of Jesse had been both physical and mental exhaustion.

Now, his body ran beyond sustainable levels, and showed no sign that it would stop.

It just continued to release chemicals, refusing to allow him to rest or calm- keeping him in a state of physical readiness.

This didn't help his mental state, however. Staying alert is useful during battle, but it's a curse afterward.

Cameron realizes that by applying the word 'grieving' to John's reaction to Jordon Cowan's deathj, she had grossly misused it.

What she felt after leaving the John of 2027 wasn't as bad as what John was going through now.

She had been able to take comfort in the fact that she'd see John again soon- even if it wasn't 'her John'.

John had no such luxury. This was it. There was just one Sarah Connor. John would never see her again after she was gone.

Cameron takes the phone from John, placing it on the bed beside her.

"John, you need to breathe."

He doesn't respond, he just cries.

Her tone became one of reassurance.

"If you don't calm down, you'll be in no condition to see her."

He was able to pull just far enough away to look into her eyes.

"I'm not going to see her! Don't you understand that!"

"John, she's strong. In 2027 you told me that she was the best fighter you'd ever known."

He looked at her in disbelief.

"She was already dead! That machine told me that she dies before the bombs even fall!"

"Well _this _machine is telling you that she's not dead yet."

John seemed to regret his words.

"You're not-"

She saw an opening and took it.

"Yes I am."

His sobbing stopped.

"No, you're different!"

"I'm still a machine."

"You love me..."

"I do, but I'm still just a machine."

His tears stopped flowing.

"NO! You're not 'just' a machine! Don't you ever say that! Don't you ever think that!"

"John, it's okay. It's what I am."

It was working. She was able to distract him from his loss, if only for a few moments.

"You're different! You're special! I love you!"

"I love you too, but that doesn't make me any less a machine."

"A machine is what just killed my mom!"

"John, she's still alive. She's still fighting. If she were dead, then Derek would have called by now."

"Or maybe he's just drinking himself into a stupor! Like he did with Jesse!"

The phone rang, and Cameron released her grip on John.

"Hello?! Hello?!"

"FUCK THE CODE!"

John's seemed to freeze for a moment, processing whatever he'd been told.

Cameron tried not to cry for him. His mother had been strong for him, now she'd have to be.

She knew that in all likelihood his mother lay dead in a hospital, police had identified her as Sarah Connor, and there was a SWAT team on its way to their location.

Suddenly John looked relieved, then happy.

"Where?! Okay, I'm coming!"

Hanging up and tossing aside the phone he jumped from the bed and began running downstairs.

"John, what is it?"

"She's going to be okay!"

Reaching the living room, he pulls back a small mat revealing the floor safe.

"What are you doing?"

John begins entering the combination.

"We need a hundred-fifty thousand dollars."

"Why?"

He opens the safe and begins grabbing stacks of hundreds, fifties, and twenties.

"Medical expenses."

Scene 150: Comatose

8:31pm The doctor's office. John and Cameron have just entered.

They have tricked the T-880 into staying at the house by dropping the word 'security' a few times.

The doctor had stepped out as soon as he had received payment, telling them nothing of her condition, and warning them that they '...have thirty minutes to get her the hell out of here.'

Derek has told John that his mother is stable, but won't wake up for a while- maybe days.

Sarah lays on what passes for an operating table with five empty blood packets, several syringes, some discarded tubing, and a pair of gloves scattered on the floor around the table.

Although he comes from a time where privacy and modesty are nearly meaningless, Derek knows that they mean something to her. Out of respect, he has used his jacket to cover her bandaged but otherwise bare chest.

"Mom?!"

John begins running toward her, but Cameron grabs him by his shirt.

"Let go of me!"

"John, calm down. If you aren't careful, she could start bleeding."

He relents after a moment, and she releases him.

John reaches his mother's side. Her breathing is labored.

Above Derek's jacket, he can see that the doctor has left what appears to be a syringe in the right side of her chest.

His hand moves toward it.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Derek and Cameron both shout.

"It's called a flutter val-" Cameron begins, but is cut off by Derek.

"It's the only thing keeping her lungs from collapsing."

John wants to hug his mother, but he knows that he can't without risk of reopening her wounds.

He settles for leaning over her and gently holding her head, placing his cheek against hers, sobbing and talking to her quietly.

"I love you, mom. I thought I'd lost you. I need you. I can't lose you. I'm sorry I wasn't there. If I'd been there... it's all my fault. I should have been there. I should have been stronger. I should have been smarter."

Derek can't hear what his nephew is saying, but he sees tears in Cameron's eyes.

"What is it?" Derek doesn't care about her or believe that she can feel anything, but he knows that terminators mimic behavior appropriate for whatever they see or hear.

"John's blaming himself for this." she starts crying harder.

He looks at her in disbelief, shaking his head in disgust, before walking over to his nephew.

She had only wanted to give John some privacy- a human girl couldn't have heard what he'd said. It seemed wrong for her to intrude.

"John, this is nobody's fault. You can't blame yourself. You weren't even there."

John pulls his head away from his mother, turning to his uncle with his eyes fill with rage.

"That's why it's my fault! I'm the one who's supposed to be fighting this war, not her!"

Derek puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Someday you'll leadthis war, but others will still have to fight it."

Derek stuns even himself with his comforting words and tone.

Cameron is unsure of what to say and remains where she is.

After a few moments Derek pats him on the back and walks over to Cameron.

"Did you bring a car? She needs to lay down, but the truck's a little messed up."

"It's out front." Cameron answered.

He holds out his hand.

"Give me the keys and I'll bring it to the door. Can you move her safely?" Derek asks.

"Yes I can."

"Good."

As he moves toward the door, she quietly calls after him.

"Derek... I've never seen you act like this."

He turns half way around, smiling to himself with watery eyes.

"It's what Kyle would do."

Then he shakes his head and walks out, realizing that he had just spoken to the machine as though it were a person.

***************************************************************************************


	6. Scenes 151 to 160

**Predaking50ae Scenes 151-160**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 151: ...For Good People to Do Evil Things...

Sunday March 30th, 2008  
9:00am ZieraCorp Headquarters - Catherine Weaver's office

Ms. Weaver sits at her desk.

Savannah sits quietly on the couch with a coloring book.

Ellison has just stepped out of the elevator.

"Ah, Mr. Ellison. Please. Sit."

"Oh, thank you Ms. Weaver."

She smiles knowingly.

"I'm surprised to see you here on a Sunday."

"Mass let out early today."

"It's nine-oh-one, Mr. Ellison."

'How does she always know exactly what time it is?'

She continues.

"You haven't been."

"No, I had-"

"Something to tell me?"

'She's good.'

"There was a shootout this past Friday."

He places on her desk a file containing some witness reports and photographs.

"Whoever was involved used grenades and there were burns on the black top and sidewalk that appear to have come from something called 'thermite'."

She places a hand on the folder in acceptance, but doesn't open it.

"Interesting. Do you think that robots were involved?"

He seemed hesitant.

"I don't know. Only a few people saw anything, most just kept their heads down when the shooting started."

She just smiles.

"What did they say?"

"Two of them claimed to have seen a silver man."

"You mean a robot?"

"I don't know."

She leaned forward, still smiling.

"Mr. Ellison, I'm not going to judge you. We're chasing robots, after all."

He looks out the window for a moment, trying to figure out how to convince her without mentioning Pescadero.

"One said that the man came from a puddle of mercury. Like it just turned into a man. Another said that he saw a woman get blown apart into silver liquid, then just... reform."

"Is that so, Mr. Ellison?"

"I know. It sounds crazy."

She stands up and walks over to a small filing cabinet. Reaching inside, she removes the cap from a tiny jar and dumps out the terminator piece she had stored for Ellison's benefit. She then places a small amount of her own mimetic pollyalloy inside, replacing the cap before returning triumphantly to Ellison.

"It's not crazy at all, Mr. Ellison."

"What's this?" he asks as he takes the container.

"It's from a similar woman."

"Where did you get this?"

She smiles.

"From someone close."

He stares in awe as the material moves along the inside of the jar while he rotates it, always staying on the side facing Weaver's desk.

'It's repelled by me...'

"Is it dangerous?"

"Extremely."

He looks at her for a moment.

Suddenly feeling very uncomfortable holding the container, he sets it down on the desk near Weaver's clasped hands.

The material stays close to her.

'...but not by her.'

Catherine speaks.

"What happened to her?"

Ellison is focused on the substance in the jar.

"Mr. Ellison?"

"What? I'm sorry."

"The silver woman, what happened to her?"

"Oh, she was destroyed, thank God."

Catherine's previous smile vanishes, her expression and tone become deadly serious.

"Is that so?"

Scene 152: Constant Vigil

11:00am 'Baum' residence - Sarah's room

Sarah has yet to regain consciousness, John hasn't left her side, and Cameron hasn't left his.

Part of John hasn't listened to his uncle or Cameron- part of him believes that she'll never wake up.

Cameron places an arm around him, he looks into her sparkling brown eyes and smiles.

Getting lost in them, he forgets about his mother for a brief moment.

"John, you haven't showered since Friday morning. Get cleaned up, then meet me downstairs."

His smile is diminished slightly.

"Why?"

She smiles.

"We're going out."

Scene 153: Liquid Courage

11:45am A small diner

John and Cameron are seated at a booth.

A blooming onion and a basket of potato wedges sit between them- the first real food John has seen since before the battle.

When Cameron had asked for a glass of water to drink, John ordered three sodas.

It's the first time that John has been happy in two days.

"Well?" John asks.

"It's... different."

"Cameron, it's a deep-fried onion. 'Different' isn't an answer."

"I don't know what to compare it to. I've only really tasted ice cream and pizza."

"Is it something you'd like to eat again sometime?"

Her face brightens.

"Yes, I'd like to come here with you again."

He smiles back.

"So would I, but that's not what I meant. Would you rather eat this, pizza, or ice cream at every meal?"

"Pizza. It contains more varied nutrients."

He chuckles and shakes his head.

"Cameron, if this onion, pizza, and ice cream all contained the same nutrients, but they tasted the same as they do now, which would you rather eat?"

"Ice cream."

"Because of the taste?"

"Yes."

"Well, I guess we'll have to get some ice cream later."

He picks up the orange soda.

"Try this."

She takes a sip and smiles.

"It tastes better than water."

"Of course it does. It's bad for you."

He hands her a glass of cola.

"Now this?"

"It's not as good, but it tastes better with the food."

He looks at her expectantly, and after a moment she picks up the final glass, about to take a sip.

"Wait! You might need these."

He hands her a few napkins, she tilts her head for a moment before taking them.

She takes a sip, quickly spitting it back into the glass, and trying to wipe off her tongue.

John starts laughing.

Distracted by the repulsive taste, she fails to notice the harmless contents listed on her HUD.

"It's poison!" she shouts.

John contains his laughter and shakes his head.

"It's not poison. I wasn't convinced that you could taste anything. I had to be sure."

"If it's not poison, then what is it?"

"Moxie."

Scene 154: Byrne Fischer

12:21am Topanga State Park - John and Cameron walk aimlessly along a trail.

"John?"

"Yeah?"

"Back at the diner, you said that you weren't convinced I could taste. Why didn't you believe me?"

He stops and faces her.

"Cam, you make it sound like I don't trust you."

"You didn't." she says flatly.

"It's not like that. I just had to be sure that you weren't doing it because it's what you thought I wanted."

She looks hurt.

"You didn't want to?"

He lets out a sigh.

"Of course, but I want you to be happy. I had to be sure that I wasn't making you do something that you didn't enjoy, understand?"

"Yes. Is there anything that you do for me that you don't enjoy?"

John thinks for a moment, trying to come up with the perfect answer.

He takes her hand and puts it against his chest, over his heart. Satisfied that he's being scanned, he looks into her eyes and answers.

"I've enjoyed every second."

She smiles, then copies his gesture by taking his hand and placing it on her left breast.

"So have I, John."

Through his hand she can tell that his heartrate and blood pressure have just increased. His face is red and he's no longer focused on her eyes.

"Uh...I...Camerhah...m...you..."

Following his gaze, she realizes what she's just done.

"Oh... sorry." releasing his hand.

"Um...i-i-it's okay."

After a few seconds, she gives him a mischievous smile.

He responds with confusion.

She takes a step forward, causing him to take a step back.

"What?"

Another step forward. He takes another step back.

"Cam?"

Another, and his back hits a tree.

"Cameron?"

She takes one last step, pinning him against it with her body.

"What are you doing?" he barely whispers.

She places her right hand on his chest, keeping him from leaning forward, and places her lips just out of his reach. He can feel the heat of her body, the warmth of her breath.

Her left hand takes his right, and she places it on her abdomen, beginning to slowly slide it upward beneath her shirt.

She can feel his heart racing, she feel his temperature climbing.

His finger tips reach her bra, and she presses his hand firmly against her body so that it will slide underneath and into the cup.

The tip of his middle finger just touches the supple mound.

Then, her pupils dilate.

Her lips are so close that as she moves them to speak, they brush his.

"John?" she says innocently.

"...Yeah?"

"Run."

His eyes dart back and forth as his brain searches for an alternate meaning for the word, and her palm connects with the side of his face.

"RUN!"

As he does so, he looks back and sees Cameron advancing toward a large man- obviously a T-888.

Scene 155: Manning Up

12:33am 'Baum' residence

John grabs his M4. It still has the M203A1 attachment.

He has grabbed a small bag with a shoulder strap- similar to what the T-880 used to carry grenades and thermite -and has haphazardly tossed in spare magazines and 40mm grenades.

The T-880 is nowhere to be seen.

Derek is out.

His mother is still unconscious.

He runs out the door, knowing that Cameron had never held out against a T-888 of that size for more than a few minutes.

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 156: Over My Dead Body

12:52am The park

John reaches the point where he last saw Cameron.

He has openly carried his weapon throughout the park.

He fears that he took too long arming himself.

'I had my Glock, I should have stayed. I shouldn't have ran. I shouldn't have left her.'

He hears a loud clink.

Pinpointing the direction, he leaves the trail, heading into the trees and brush.

He can see something though the vegetation.

He raises his weapon.

"Cameron? Is that you?"

The form doesn't respond. John has his answer.

"Hey! John Connor is talking to you!"

After a moment the figure begins crashing through the brush toward him.

Like he did when he fired his grenade at the T-1001, he feels calm, confident, determined.

As the face comes into view, he begins to fire at it.

The bullets begin to rip through the machine's flesh, taking out one of its cybernetic eyes.

The machine falls to the ground, but John knows that it has only lost its balance.

He starts to back pedal, he's too close to use the M203 without being sprayed with shrapnel.

The machine begins to rise, and John continues to fire at its head, face, and neck.

Sarah has taught him well. He fires the last rounds without his support hand, which had reached into his bag to retrieve another magazine.

When his weapon runs dry, he uses his middle finger to hit the magazine release button, as the mag drops free, he slaps in the fresh one.

With the triple-eight on its feet coming toward him, John stops backpedaling.

Standing his ground, he aims for the machine's remaining eye, taking it out.

His rounds haven't seemed to work on the machine's head- the cranial armor is too thick -so he focuses on its neck, hoping to damage the CPU's connection to the body.

Not knowing how blindness affects the machine, but knowing that it has superior aural perception, John treats it as though it were unhindered.

It's prudent, but unnecessary. The ground between them is silent, and the machine has no visual memory of it.

It trips, falling flat on its damaged face.

John sees that some of his bullets have glanced off of its cranium, shredding the scalp, and exposing the CPU port. He's dealt with enough of them to know that the cover is thin. Even made from hyper-alloy, he doesn't believe it can stop a .223 from this range.

Thumbing the fire selector to single, he aims two inches high to compensate for the sight offset, and squeezes the trigger.

The round impacts the port cover, but does not penetrate. It doesn't have to.

Spalling combined with the denting of the metal cover against the machine's chip, have damaged it severely.

The machine twitches the same way that Cromartie had.

As he had with Cromartie, John delivers the coup de grace.

Scene 157: A Knight and Shining Armor

12:54pm John finds Cameron in a small clearing.

She had been laying face down in the dirt, surrounded by splintered wood.

He had ran his hand over the right side of her head, confirming that her CPU had not been accessed.

When he turned her over, his heart sank.

She had been struck hard, apparently with the large, splintered, branch that lay nearby.

Her left cheek had split and her metal 'cheekbone' was now exposed.

He didn't know what such an impact might do to her damaged chip.

The moment that he saw her face, reality came rushing back, just as it had after T-1001 was destroyed.

Collapsing to his knees next to her, he lifts her torso onto his lap, and cradles her as he sobs.

"Cameron?"

She doesn't answer. She doesn't move.

He shakes her in desperation, knowing that it won't affect her reboot.

"Cameron?!"

He loses all perception of time, believing minutes to have passed.

'She isn't waking up.'

He swings his weapon and the bag of ammunition behind his back and out of the way, before picking her up.

"Don't worry, I can fix you. You'll be okay. I can fix you."

After carrying her for only a few steps, he hears whirring from within her head.

"Cameron?" he choked.

She looks at him in confusion, before pushing herself out of his arms.

"The triple-eight!"

"It's gone. It's over."

Her confusion turns to anger.

"Why are you still here! Get out of here before it comes back!"

Tears run down his face and his voice trembles as he reaches for her.

"Cam, it's not com-"

She knocks his hand away.

"I told you to run!"

He shrinks slightly, his mouth moves but no words escape.

She notices two straps on his shoulders which weren't there before. Following one of them with her eyes, she sees the barrel of John's M4 peeking out from behind his back. Switching to thermal, she sees that it's still hot.

'He challenged it with _that_? But that's suicide...'

It's her turn to be speechless. She looks at him, her mouth falling open as she tilts her head.

His voice is small.

"...I came back for you...to save you...I love you, Cam."

She remembers him whispering 'I won't let you take her from me' while fighting the T-1001.

It dawns on her.

'He wasn't talking about his mother... He was talking about me!'

Her eyes water.

'Has it all been for me? Is he becoming humanity's champion just to protect me?'

Tears run down her face, some running along her exposed 'cheekbone', causing her armor to shine brilliantly in what sunlight filters through the forest canopy.

"I love you too, John."

She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him deeply.

He tastes dirt and her synthetic blood, but he doesn't care.

He has his Cameron back. She's safe now, and it's thanks to him.

She breaks their long kiss, lifting the sling of the rifle and the strap of the bag over his head, and dropping them on the ground.

Locking her lips back onto his, she grabs his shirt, pulling him on top of herself as she gently falls backward onto the ground.

Suddenly she stops, and begins running her hands quickly across his chest.

Disconcerted by something, she furrows her brow and looks up into his eyes.

"John, you should have brought your armor."

He smiles at her.

"You were already here."

Scene 158: Concerned Parent

3:06pm 'Baum' residence

Derek has returned from picking up a pair of new cellphones and restocking the Resistance supply drop- they had used most of the thermite in their last fight.

Realizing that no one else was there, Derek stayed by Sarah's side.

He continues telling her unconscious body about Kyle and her son.

"You know, this one time we- me and Kyle, I mean -we were out scouting for Skynet forces, and Kyle turns to me and he says 'I smell jet fuel'. I told him 'Not out here'. You know what he'd found?"

He pauses, as if giving her a chance to respond.

"Tank factory. All the Centaurs that had been hammering us for the past few weeks? He'd found the source. Can you believe it?"

Again, he allows time for an answer that doesn't come.

"Within an hour, Connor- I mean 'your son' -had sent out a strike force. I don't know how he planned it so fast, he just did. He just can. Skynet never saw it coming. It thought that hiding the place was enough. The defenses were light- heavy as hell, I just mean for something that important -and we turned it into a junkyard in just a few hours."

No response.

"John was there too, you know? He had- will have -a way of inspiring people. They fight harder knowing that he's there. He gives them hope... because he's the guy that turned everything around. We were chained up, in Century, working for Skynet. Helping it kill us faster. Then he just came outta nowhere and told us to fight. No one listened at first, they were too scared."

Silence.

"He told Kyle that it was time to _show_ them how to fight. Then John picked up a metal bar and started smashing one of those metal motherfuckers. He smashed it to shit- by himself! -with everyone watching. He got banged up, though... cut up pretty bad, legs, chest, face, all over. After he was done with it, he shouted at everyone to fight. When he was sure they'd listened, he collapsed. Kyle carried him out."

Again, not a sound.

"Kyle was one of his few real friends. At the time, I didn't know why John gave him your picture. It creeped me out, to be honest. I didn't like how he looked at it."

"How was that?"

"With love."

Derek nearly falls out of his seat in surprise.

"SARAH?!"

She swallows with difficulty.

Derek begins heading toward the kitchen.

"Uh, hang on a sec, I'll get you something to drink... Oh, and John's fine."

She smiles to herself and relaxes as if about to drift to sleep.

Derek continues.

"He, Cameron and the other one took out the machine."

Pain shoots through her chest as she imagines her son fighting the machine because she couldn't protect him.

'I'm sorry John, I let you down.'

'You shouldn't have to fight while I'm around.'

'I'm your mother, I'm supposed to keep you safe.'

Derek returns, holding a water bottle with a straw. He begins moving it toward her mouth, but she misunderstands the gesture and tries to reach out to take it.

She winces in pain, and Derek gently pushes her back down.

"Take it easy, you were pretty messed up."

Sarah seems to enjoy the water.

"I guess that an IV full of saline isn't too refreshing, huh?"

She smiles.

"Sorry I blew you up."

Derek laughs.

"It's not the first time I've had a close call."

He lifts his shirt.

"See this scar-"

She frowns.

"Put your shirt back on you idiot. Where's my son?"

"Out."

He realizes that his answer isn't good enough.

"He was here for the last two days straight, but-"

"I was out for two days?"

"Almost. It's Sunday afternoon."

She frowns.

"Where'd he go?"

"Cameron convinced him to go out. They didn't tell me anything, but I've sat next to wounded friends before, so I'd bet my life that he got something to eat, then went for a walk to clear his head."

Derek suddenly realizes that he should try to contact John.

"Hang on, I'll let him know you're awake."

He leaves the room to make the call. Dialing John's number, he can hear a ringing from the living room.

'He's already back.'

Hanging up the phone, he heads toward the source.

"Your mother is-"

He sees John's cellphone sitting beside the forgotten weapons from Friday's battle. John's M4 and a bag are missing.

'John... I thought you'd changed your mind...'

He uses John's cell to call Cameron. Hers is shut off.

Having no way to contact or locate either of them, he returns to Sarah's room attempting to come up with something to tell her.

"Sarah? I'm sorry, they're pretty far away. It's going to be a while before they get back."

"Can I talk to him?"

'I didn't think this through.'

"No, he can't talk right now. I spoke to Cameron."

She smiles appreciatively.

"Derek?" she says sweetly.

He smiles back, relieved that she believes him.

"Yeah?"

"If you don't tell me what's happened to my son right now..."

Her smile fades as she produces a Glock 17.

"...I'm going to kill you."

"Look, Sarah-"

"NOW!" with her outburst, she risks undoing what little healing her right lung has done.

"I don't know. His cell is here, and Cameron's is shut off."

"Call her again!"

He uses John's cellphone to call again, then hangs up.

"It's still off."

"Leave a message!"

He calls again, leaving a message.

"Give me the phone!"

She begins calling Cameron. Then looks at Derek, seemingly more enraged by the second.

"Derek, what aren't you telling me?"

"I've told you everything."

"Don't test me!"

"I really don't know where they are."

She smiles.

"I believe you."

He seems relieved, then her smile vanishes.

"But you know something, and if you don't tell me right now-"

"Sarah-"

"Make it good!"

"Sarah... John left his phone and took a rifle and travel bag."

Tears fill her eyes and her chest tightens, causing pain to shoot through her body.

'Did my boy run away?'

'No, he wouldn't leave me like this.'

'Unless... he thought the machines would stop coming for me.'

She cries harder.

"He left me. My boy left me."

Forcing the tears and physical pain aside, she looks at Derek.

"Tell me everything. Now."

Scene 159: En Route

4:14pm Cameron and John are nearing the 'Baum' residence

John has previously cleaned, stitched, and bandaged Cameron's cheek.

Cameron had insisted on driving, telling John that his '...body requires rest in order to replenish its reserves of serotonin and endorphins'.

John had smiled and allowed her to drive without argument, but obviously didn't agree.

She's surprised by his confidence and energy after such a stressful and 'physical' day.

"Thanks for coming back for me." she says quietly.

John looks at her surprise.

"Cameron... You already know that I would die for you."

She smiles over at him.

"You left me until you were equipped to help me. That took courage."

He smiles proudly, and hers wanes slightly.

"Just don't do that again. Not for a while."

"What? I saved you."

She frowns.

"That weapon is too light for-"

"It worked just fine."

She sees that he hasn't matured as much as she'd thought.

"Please try to understand. You aren't ready for this."

John looks insulted.

"Not ready? I took out-"

"John, could you have done that only to save your own life?"

He looks at the floor.

"No..."

She places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"You did a good job. Someday, you'll be able to do that whenever you want."

He looks over at her for a moment, then chuckles.

Cameron tilts her head unsure of what he finds funny, then smiles at him.

"Down boy."

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 160: It Runs in the Family

4:18pm 'Baum' residence - John and Cameron have just entered.

The T-880 is still nowhere to be seen.

Cameron has carried the T-888 into the house and dropped it onto the floor.

John had been about to drop his M4 and bag of ammunition on the couch, but decided to keep them in his room instead.

Running up the stairs, and approaching his room, he hears his mother's voice.

Without dropping the bag or rifle, John rushes over and pushes her bedroom door open, seeing his mother asking Derek questions with a gun in her hand.

"MOM!"

John drops the bag, but seems to have become comfortable enough with his M4 to have forgotten about. It remains hanging from its sling.

"John?!"

John runs to her, sitting on the bed and carefully hugging her. Tears cover both of their faces.

Derek quickly and quietly exits the room.

"John, you came back to me!"

He pulls back, but remains seated beside her.

"What do you mean?"

She continues to cry.

"I thought you left me. I thought you ran away."

He looks confused.

"Why would I-" his confusion turns to suspicion, "What did Derek tell you?"

She takes a caring and understanding tone.

"John, I know that you and Cameron decided to run away."

Suspicion turns to rage.

"WHAT?!"

He jumps up from the bed, and realizes that he is now holding his M4 and has thumbed the fire selector to full-auto. He switches it back to safe, and allows the weapon to hang from the sling once more.

"Mom, we never planned to run away. I won't leave you."

She sounds offended.

"He heard you say it, John."

John looks away from her to think, trying to understand why his uncle would lie.

"John, I understand. I know that you don't want this life."

His face darkens and he looks back to his mother.

"Derek's a Gray."

Her eyes go wide.

"You'd accuse him of that just to cover yourself?!"

His face remains unchanged.

"The T-880 said that he was a traitor. Derek had been court marshalled in the future, and-"

"But you let him go!"

He continues.

"He handed Jesse to us, and we forgave him without question. Then he killed her before she could tell us anything."

"John Connor, he's family! You sent him back and you gave the machine orders to let him live!"

"Even knowing he's a Gray, I'll do it again. He broke up whatever Jesse was planning in order to buy our trust, and he saved your life."

His words begin making sense, and it scares her.

"John, he murdered Andy becau-"

"He built the Turk. Andy was a good man, he would have stopped it. Like Dyson did. Now the Turk's gone."

"What about the triple-eight that shot him?"

"Cameron threw off its aim, maybe it was trying to hit us."

She can't believe that this is making sense to her. Everything he's saying makes sense.

"Why hasn't the machine killed him? Now that he's saved me?"

John looks away.

"Maybe I wanted to give him a chance. Because of dad."

She doesn't say anything, she's running out of ideas.

John looks at her.

"The T-880 has been gone all day. Cameron and I were attacked when no one knew where we were, and Derek wasn't here when I came back for..." he gestures to the rifle slung on his shoulder, causing her to realize that the attack took place today.

"You were attacked?!"

He shakes his head at her distraction.

"Mom, everything's fine."

"It's not fine! Are you all right?! Are you hurt?!"

He's getting frustrated.

"I'm fine!"

After a moment of silence John continues.

"Cromartie always knew where I was. He came here-"

"Here?!"

"Mom, shut up!"

Ordinarily, she wouldn't allow him to speak to her like this. Seeing how important this is and that her maternal instincts are making things more difficult, she allows him to continue.

"He came to my school, he even followed me to Mexico."

"Your school?!"

Catching herself, she gets back on topic.

"Derek helped destroy him! He brought Cameron!"

"If Riley hadn't helped me escape, and Ellison hadn't picked us up, Cameron would have been too late! Derek even tried to convince us to get rid of her."

"She tortured him!"

"What if that's when he turned? He was sent back within days of his escape! He tried to turn us against her because she kept Vick's chip, which helped us stop ARTIE. Where was he when Sarkissian showed up? Where was he when Cromartie came here? Where was he when you were getting stabbed-"

"Unconscious, because of me."

John hadn't known it was her fault.

"Then why didn't that thing kill him?"

She shakes her head, then thinks of something.

"John, if you're right, then why don't any of the machines know what you look like?"

He's taken aback by this.

"I... I don't know... Wait... today the machine came straight for us!"

"If Derek had followed you, he would have been spotted by Cameron- Cameron, she scanned him! She said that  
he was telling the truth!"

"Somebody must have followed us. And her scan only works when questions are answered with-"

He recalls Cameron being in absolute control of the interrogation.

Sarah realizes that everything he's said only fits when you _assume_ that Derek is guilty.

"John, I don't believe that he's a Gray."

He stands up, rifle in hand.

"Well, I'm going to find out."

***************************************************************************************


	7. Scenes 161 to 170

**Predaking50ae Scenes 161-170**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 161: True Lies

4:27: 'Baum' residence - Living Room

The T-880 still isn't present.

Cameron and the defeated T-888 were gone before Derek left Sarah's room.

He's unaware of the T-888's attack.

Derek sits at the dining room table.

He had intended to leave the house until things calmed down, but decided that Kyle would stay if he were the one who was there.

"Put your hands on your head, stand up, and turn around." an threatening voice says.

Whirling around and standing, Derek finds himself with an angry John's M4 in his face.

"John, what are-"

"Shut up!"

"John, I don-"

"I told you to put your hands on your head!"

"Why?!"

"Because I have a gun!"

He complies, but not out of fear.

John finds that without Cameron present, there isn't a way for him to get his answers.

Without taking his eyes off of Derek, he takes his support hand off of the weapon and uses it to pick up the cordless phone from the counter.

He begins dialing.

"Who are-"

"Shut up!"

The ring of Cameron's phone comes from his flank, and John glances over momentarily.

Derek has no intention of fighting, nor is he foolish enough to believe that any human can move an arm faster than another can twitch a finger.

John hangs up and tosses the phone aside, calling to her.

"Cameron?"

She moves into the room and doesn't understand what she sees.

"John, what are you doing?"

John's voice turns soft.

"He's a Gray."

"No, I'm-"

"Shut up!"

Cameron tries to calm him down.

"John, he's not a Gray."

She raises her hand, wiggling her fingers to remind him that she scanned him when he returned with Jesse.

Again, John's voice softens while answering her.

"He told my mom that he overheard us planning to run away."

"We never-"

"I heard you! At the park!"

"You were there?! You lead the triple-eight to us!"

"What triple-eight?!"

"The one I killed today!"

"I spent the day-"

"Shut up!"

John's voice, once again turns soft.

"Cameron? I need you to scan him. If he lies..." his grip on the weapon tightens, "...just tell me if he lies."

Cameron walks over and puts one hand on Derek's neck, using the other to relieve him of his Beretta and places it out of reach.

John begins his questioning.

"Are you working for Skynet?"

Derek had been trying hard to be a better person- even giving Cameron her space -and had thought that he was becoming part of the family.

"No."

"He's telling the truth."

"Did you follow us today?"

Now he finds himself being accused of trying to get two members of that family killed.

"No."

"He's lying."

John doesn't have to ask.

"I wasn't following you! I went in the same direction that you did, and I passed you when you stopped at the diner! I didn't see either of you again until a few minutes ago!"

"He's telling the truth."

Cameron asks a question, hoping to end this quickly.

"Did you hear us plan to run away?"

John is surprised that she'd even ask.

"Yes!"

"He's telling the truth."

"We've never even considered it!"

"That doesn't matter. He believes that we have, and he believes that he heard us."

"Then who the hell lead the triple-eight to us?"

"It wasn't me!"

Cameron stands silently for a moment, before realizing that John is expecting verification.

"He's telling the truth."

"Are you sure? Is there any chance he's lying? Could he have lead it to us?"

"I can only verify honesty and dishonesty, not whether or not something is factual. If he's lying, he doesn't know it."

"Is that possible?"

"No."

He asks Derek another question.

"When do you _think_ you overheard us planning to run off?"

"The park. Where I took you to see your- where I brought you on your birthday."

Cameron takes her hand off of Derek.

"He's not a Gray, John. He must have misheard us."

John grits his teeth and lowers his weapon, realizing that he has just held a family member at gunpoint over a misunderstanding.

"I'm... sorry, Derek."

"What the hell is wrong with you John?! I killed Jesse for you!"

"Somebody has been helping Skynet find us! Triple-eights have shown up here, at school, Mexico, the park, they've been finding me every-" he stops mid sentence.

"What is it, John?" Cameron asks.

"Cameron, have you seen any familiar faces when we've gone out? Anyone following us, or someone you've seen before who just happens to be there?"

"Why? What are you thinking?"

"Someone has been tipping off the machines... Maybe another T-1001?"

"John, the primary mission of all terminators is to kill you. If one finds out who you are, it will immediately attempt to complete that mission. No terminator could simply follow us, while knowing who you were."

"No one was with me in Mexico!"

Cameron speaks up.

"Riley was there."

"She got rid of Cromartie when he showed up here! She helped me get out of jail! I'd be dead if-"

Derek cuts him off.

"John, listen to yourself! You're defending her because she was there when Cromatie found you! What if he found you _because_ she was there?"

"But she got rid of him!"

Cameron cuts in.

"John, only Riley knew that you were in Mexico."

"No, I called mom from the police station and Cromartie answered. That's how he found out where I was!"

Derek can't believe his nephew is so dense.

"Well how'd he find Sarah? Jesse had something planned. What if Riley was working with her?"

John shakes his head. He doesn't believe that Riley is involved, but he has to be certain.

"We need to find her. Cameron will be able to tell if she's responsible."

He starts walking for the door.

Derek retrieves his Beretta, then heads toward the living room for his M79.

Cameron heads toward her room for her Remington 870 and depleted uranium ammunition.

Scene 162: Fan Favorite

4:42pm Riley's foster parents' house - Front door

John has just knocked.

Cameron and Derek have stayed in the car continuing to scan for Riley.

Cameron is particularly nervous, since John has had to leave his rifle in the car to avoid suspicion.

Derek has had to bring along John's bag for him, since John refused to take the idea of Riley being a Gray seriously enough to even prepare for terminator threats.

Sitting in the car, Derek can't help but wonder if Jesse had actual feelings for him- after all, the attacks on John had come when he wasn't around.

Riley answers the door.

She smiles in her usual, loopy way.

"Long time no see, 'Cat Fancy'."

'Why does she think that's funny?'

"Yeah, uh, haha. Listen, do you wanna go for a ride?"

"Sure, where to?"

"I dunno yet. I guess that depends on you..."

She turns around and shouts into the house.

"I'm going out!"

Stepping out the door Riley notices Cameron and Derek in the car, and seems concerned for a moment.

"John, where are we going?"

"Where do you want to go?"

"Nowhere with your crazy sister."

'Crazy sister? She's never seen or heard Cameron do anything weird. Wait, she did follow us once...but...no...I explained that my mom had asked her to keep an eye on us...'

"Come on Riley, she can be a lot of fun. Give her a chance, okay?"

She kisses him on the cheek.

"All right, 'Cat Fancy'. I'll do it for you."

As she walks over to the car and climbs into the back seat with Derek, he stares at her with a furrowed brow.

'I tell her not to come by again, then after _months_ I show up at her door, pressuring her into coming with me, and she gives me a kiss?'

His expression turns to one of resignation.

Noticing Cameron's stare, his eyes meet hers. She simply nods.

Scene 163: Blue Lights, Red Hair

5:04pm A reservoir.

Fifty yards from the car, Riley and Cameron stand with their backs to John and Derek.

John stands by the car and watches Cameron intently. That Riley had allowed herself to be brought to such a remote location was nearly enough for John.

Derek scans the area for danger.

Cameron puts her hand on the back of Riley's neck, gently rubbing it.

"You look nervous. Are you nervous?"

"No... Why did we come out here?"

"Did you go to the park today?"

"Which park?"

"Topanga."

"...No."

"Did you see John and me there?"

"I told you, I wasn't there."

"Do you know what a terminator is?"

"What does that mean?"

"Do you?"

"I-is that- Are you threatening me?"

They seem to try staring each other down for several seconds, then Cameron answers with a smile.

"Yes. Yes I am."

Riley starts to pull away, but Cameron's hand closes firmly around the back of her neck, holding her in place.

"What's John's real last name?"

"Baum."

John watches Cameron closely as she releases Riley's neck, before taking several steps away from Riley.

Cameron turns to John, and her eyes flash blue.

Riley feels pain, followed a millisecond later by a loud 'crack'.

Trying to put a hand on her shoulder blade, she begins running forward.

Another 'crack' and Riley drops to one knee, then stands and continues running.

Again, there is a 'crack'. Again she falls. Again she stands.

Another 'crack' rings out, this time it is followed by a 'popping' sound. Riley crumples to the dirt, her blond hair slowly begins to turn crimson.

John puts his M4 back on safe and gets into the drivers seat.

Cameron gets into the passenger seat, hooking one hand around John's neck, and the other around his far shoulder. Pulling gently, she brings their bodies toward one another and kisses him passionately.

Derek looks in disbelief from Riley's body to his nephew's display.

After what may have been minutes, John and Cameron separate.

Putting his window down, John sticks his head out and turns to his uncle.

"Are you getting in, or are you going to walk back?"

Derek shakes his head and gets into the car.

The tires spin, throwing up a cloud of dust as John begins to drive.

Looking out the window at Riley, Derek can't figure out what's just happened.

"You just _murdered_ her, and you don't care?"

Cameron doesn't take her eyes or smile off of John as she corrects his uncle.

"_Executed_."

John smiles at her.

"_Terminated_."

Derek is startled by the disparity between the subject and his nephew's demeanor.

"Don't you feel anything?!"

John glares into the rear view mirror at his uncle.

"Yeah..."

"That's it?! 'Yeah'?!"

"She tried to take my life. She tried to take yours. She tried to take my mother. And today-"

John cups Cameron's cheek and they share amorous smiles, she closes her eyes and leans into his touch.

As he runs his thumb over the bandage on her cheekbone, his face goes dark and his gaze returns to Derek.

"-And today, the bitch tried to take everything from me. So yeah, I feel something."

"What?"

"Relieved."

"Relieved?!"

John smiles at Cameron.

"Cam, would you mind?"

She smiles lovingly at John before turning toward Derek, her smile becoming a pretentious one.

"'Relieved': Absolved, allayed, alleviated, appeased, assuaged, assured-"

She stops and turns back to John as she feels his hand on her thigh.

"I love my Cameron."

Scene 164: Stay Frosty

5:28pm John has just turned onto a sidestreet.

Cameron looks at John and tilts her head.

"John, where are you going?"

He nods toward a distant Wendy's sign while double checking that the weapons are hidden.

"I said I'd get you some ice cream later."

He looks in the mirror at Derek.

"What would you like?"

Derek can't believe how cold his nephew is.

'Didn't he have feelings for that girl? This isn't how it felt to kill Jesse. All he cares about is a promise made to a machine?'

"Nothing. I'm not hungry."

John shrugs and orders something light for his mother, then orders a Frosty for himself, Cameron, and orders one for Derek anyway.

Driving away, Derek watches as John and Cameron talk and laugh.

Cameron feeds John as he drives.

Brain freeze nearly causes John to hit an oncoming car.

"John, you're driving like your mother!" Cameron laughs.

Derek has had enough.

"John!"

He seems to have had forgotten about his uncle.

"What?"

"You just killed a girl! She was just a kid!"

"So am I. What's your point?"

"You killed her because she might have been a gray!"

John swerves onto the shoulder and slams on the brakes.

He turns and casts a disappointed look at his uncle.

"You think that I killed her without being sure?"

"I know you weren't sure!"

John addresses Cameron without breaking eye contact with his uncle.

"Cameron, how did you know she was a gray?"

"Based on my scan she was at the park and had seen us there today, she responded to the word 'terminator', and she knew that your last name wasn't 'Baum'."

"You see, Derek?"

"But how did _you_ know that?!"

"I didn't have to. I trust Cameron."

Derek looks confused, but slightly less upset.

John sees the confusion and realizes what his uncle has been thinking.

"You thought that I just shot her for no reason?"

"Yeah... I did..."

"Cameron signalled to me."

"You should have told me."

John turns away from his uncle and pulls out into the road.

"I thought this stuff was what you did."

Scene 165: Bloody Sunday

5:41pm 'Baum' residence - outside

As John, Cameron and Derek neared the house, they saw that the newly repaired Dodge pickup was parked near the door.

'That's weird...'

As John gets closer he sees that the front door is open.

"The eight-eighty must have just gotten back."

Cameron seems concerned.

"I don't think so."

"What is it?"

"The door-"

"Yeah, I know. He must have just walked in."

Cameron remembers how poor human eyesight is.

"It's in the yard."

"What is?" he notices the door laying on the ground.

"Mom!"

He reaches for his M4's hiding place between his seat and the car door.

Stopping the car he begins to run for the house with his M4.

Cameron grabs him and pushes him back toward the car.

"Stay here!"

She begins heading for the door with her shotgun.

John doesn't listen and begins following closely.

Reaching the doorway, John can see inside the house.

There is blood smeared all over the floor.

"MOM!"

He tries to push past Cameron, but she shoves him backward sending him to the ground.

"No, John! Stay here!"

As he tries to get up, Derek grabs onto him.

"Let Cameron go first! She can survive a round to the chest. You can't."

Cameron continues inside.

She sees a trail of blood leading to the dining room, and follows it.

The T-880 seems oblivious to the presence of blood, and is seated at the dining room table detail stripping and cleaning four weapons. One of them is the M82A1 from the National Guard 'heist'.

Cameron aims her shotgun at the machine's head.

"Where's Sarah?!"

It turns to her.

"Second level."

"Why is there blood everywhere?!"

"Synthetic."

"What about the door?!"

"The existing entrance was of insufficient size."

Through the doorway to the kitchen, Cameron sees a large freezer, humming away in the middle of the floor.

Walking over she opens it to find three triple-eights inside. Their flesh intact.

'I couldn't even protect John from one today... though I didn't have an ani-materiel rifle.'

Cameron returns to the front entrance in time to see Derek recover from a fall and dive forward, grabbing John's legs.

Even if her cybernetic eyes hadn't been able to see the marks in the gravel, she would have known that John hadn't let her go in alone without a fight.

John continues moving slowly toward the doorway, even with Derek holding his legs.

They both freeze when they notice Cameron standing there, tilting her head at them.

"Cameron?!"

"It's safe, John."

John runs through the doorway. As he steps into the house, he slips on the blood and Cameron catches him.

"No running in the house." she playfully chides.

Reaching his mother's room, he sees that she is having trouble breathing.

"Mom?! Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"What is it?"

With difficulty, but too quickly for John to assist, she picks up a bottle of pills and a water bottle from her nightstand.

"You haven't taken painkillers since you woke up?!"

"I didn't know what happened to you. I didn't want to dull my senses until I knew you were okay."

'I left her alone in her condition... How could I do that?'

The realization that he had abandoned his mother causes his eyes to water.

"I'm sorry, mom..."

"Don't worry about it. Come over here."

She spreads her arms as best she can, awaiting a hug.

He swings his slung M4 behind his back before he hugs her.

"I love you, mom."

"I love you too."

Sarah has awoken to the John she had been trying to create. Now she finds herself wanting to restore some of that innocence that she had tried so hard for so long to destroy.

She taps the rifle on his back.

"You've been carrying this everytime I've seen you today. You're home now, you can relax. You're safe."

He pulls away and looks at her incredulously.

"No one is ever safe."

"That's right, but you know what I mean."

John finds himself reluctant to disarm. He does so, but places it within reach on the foot of his mother's bed.

"Your Glock, John."

"I know..."

He places it beside his rifle.

"John, what happened today? Tell me everything."

Scene 166: Backwards Incompatible

8:27pm 'Baum' residence - dining room

The front door has been reattached.

The T-880 is standing by the doorway between the dining room and kitchen.

Cameron is seated at the table.

The table still has the four weapons that the T-880 had been maintaining when she arrived.

Derek has gone to bed.

John has just come down from his mother's room, leaving her resting peacefully.

John had even managed to bring her food without making a quip about her cooking.

As an annoyed John enters the room he looks at the T-880.

"All right, now why don't you tell me why you left the front door open... and tore it off the hinges... and threw it in the yard."

Cameron answers.

"The freezer wouldn't fit through the door."

"What fre-"

She interrupts

"In the kitchen."

"What's it for?"

Before she can answer, the eight-eighty strides over to John holding out his hand.

As John cups his own hand the machine drops a trio of CPUs into it.

"Where did you get these?"

"They are T-888 chips."

"I know what they are."

The machine tilts its head at him before continuing.

"I got them from T-888's."

Cameron laughs, reminded of her own naivete when she was 'young'.

John doesn't find it humorous.

"Why haven't you destroyed them?"

Cameron speaks up.

"He also kept the bodies. They're in the freezer."

"You took out three of them today? All at once?"

"Yes."

"Three machines against one?"

Cameron points to the weapons on the table.

"Two machines against six."

John turns back to the T-880.

"Why did you keep the bodies?"

"In the future, you reprogram captured machines."

"We've been destroying them... You want me to reprogram and reactivate these?"

"No, these are too badly damaged. In time, we may acquire the necessary parts to repair them."

John turns to Cameron.

"What did you do with the one from the park?"

"Nothing. The knife and thermite weren't there. That's why I came back in and found you holding Derek at gunpoint."

John quickly tells the T-880 that Derek isn't a threat. Then asks it to retrieve the T-888 from the shed and put it with the other three.

From near the kitchen doorway, John inspects the three 'new' weapons on the table.

'A Tec9, and two AK-47's...'

He walks over to the freezer and opens it.

Inside, he sees that each machine had been struck with multiple rounds from the 50BMG rifle. It also appears that two of them have had their arms disabled by brute force and all three have had their heads ripped off.

'Wow, what a mess.'

He calls to Cameron and she arrives at his side momentarily.

"I guess that the bullets didn't kill them dead enough for our friend."

"John, are you certain it's a good idea to start reprogramming now? In this time?"

He shakes his head, then looks at the three chips he's holding.

"No, but atleast I can get some practice with these."

He returns to inspecting the bodies.

'They look young... twenties, maybe. Two of them are wearing shirts with beer ads and one of them is wearing a tank top...'

'A tattoo? They all have tattoos... all different... just random.'

"Cameron? Why would terminators want to look like twenty year old gang members? Almost every one that I've seen has been cleancut and looked to be thirty to forty years old."

"You're right. These must have wanted to blend in somewhere with a large amount of criminal activity."

"Does Skynet care about drug dealing or weapon smuggling?"

"Not directly. Skynet would have little to gain. It's easy enough for it to gain a foothold without dealing in contraband."

John shakes his head.

'Terminators _are_ contraband.' he thinks to himself.

"So, most likely these didn't do anything gang related and just tried to look like they were?"

"Yes. They wouldn't want to draw unnecessary attention."

'Last time the T-880 brought something back, he just dropped it...'

John walks over to the living room.

"Cameron, this is new."

He begins opening a tattered military surplus backpack. Inside there's a small metal briefcase.

John opens it and jumps back. Seeing a four by five grid of CPU's set in protective foam.

"A box of chips?!"

Cameron picks one up and inspects the contacts and sees that they wouldn't fit any known terminator CPU port. She then snaps it in half and looks at the broken ends.

"These are primitive."

"Backwards engineered?"

"Most likely."

"Cam, if Skynet could build terminators in this time-"

"It can't. The technology, equipment, and materials don't exist yet."

"Then why-"

"I don't know. These aren't powerful enough to process the information required for bipedal locomotion."

"What about vehicles? Derek talks a lot about HK's, maybe-"

"They're too big, John. Even in LA you can't hide them."

"The military has a lot of small UAV's over in Nevada... could they control something like that?"

"That's possible. Onboard electronics would even stabilize the aircraft's flight, leaving little work left over for the chip. With most of its processing power devoted to completing its mission, it could be very smart. None of that matters, though."

His mouth falls open.

"Why not?"

She smiles and takes the triple-eight CPU's from him.

"Because right now, you're going to get some sleep."

Scene 167: Sweet Dreams

John sees Cameron laying beside him.

He runs the backs of his curled fingers over her cheek, but she doesn't respond.

'She's in standy.'

He gently shakes her and then pretends to be asleep.

After fifteen seconds pass, she still hasn't moved.

"Cameron?"

He shakes her violently.

"Cameron?!"

'No! That blow to the head must have damaged her!'

John jumps out of bed and grabs his toolbox.

Returning to her side, he cuts and peels back her scalp over the CPU port.

"I can fix you, don't worry, I can fix you."

He breaks the seal and pulls out her chip.

The plyers slip, and her chip falls. He tries to catch it, but he's too slow.

The chip hits the floor, shattering like glass.

Scene 168: Reverting to Default Settings

Monday, March 31st, 2008

5:58am John's room

He sits up quickly, his heart is racing and his eyes are watering.

"Cameron?!"

His bedroom door opens.

"What is it, John?"

Jumping out of bed, he rushes over to her and hugs her tightly while crying and kissing her cheek repeatedly.

"I thought I'd lost you."

She returns his embrace and speaks softly.

"Everything's fine. You had another nightmare?"

"I'm sorry...you weren't moving....I tried to fix you...but I...I killed you..."

"John, you didn't hurt me. It was just a dream."

He calms down enough to pull away and look at her, beginning to speak with a shaky voice.

"It...it...was so real. I'm having a hard time convincing myself that it wasn't."

Cameron gives him a quick kiss.

"How 'bout now?"

He smiles slyly.

"I'm still not sure."

She leans in and places her lips near his. Breathing heavily, she whispers.

"Tough."

With a smile, she turns on her heel and walks out, calling back to a stunned John.

"Get dressed. The T-880 told me where he found those triple-eights. Oh, and your mother wants to talk to you."

Freshly showered and changed, John enters his mother's room.

"John, I've been thinking about something."

Sarah rolls her eyes and continues.

"I haven't had much to do but think."

"What is it, mom?"

"The Turk... it's here in the city."

"How do you know that?"

"Because we keep getting attacked by machines."

"That's just proof that Skynet wants us dead."

Sarah frowns at her son.

"John, I'm not stupid. Skynet knows what city we're in. Why not just nuke LA or even all of southern California into nothing? Why not just release gas or a virus and blame it on terrorists?"

John thinks for a moment.

"You have a point. The Turk isn't much by itself. It would take a lot of tech and money to turn it into Skynet. Too much money. It would have to be the pet project of someone important."

He places a bag on her lap and she looks at him in confusion.

"My laptop. It'll give you something to do. If you want, you can search for large software or computer companies based here in the city."

"Thanks, but where are you going?"

"I don't know yet. Cameron didn't tell me."

She seems disappointed.

"So, you're going out with her again?"

"Huh? Your my mom, it's not like I'm going to forget about you."

Her expression turns to concern.

"John, I know how you feel about her, but I'm worried about you."

John stares at her for a moment, baffled by her reversal on Cameron.

"What's changed?"

She answers on the verge of tears.

"You have."

"What do you mean?"

"You're different. You've changed since last week. The way that you told me you dealt with the T-1001, the triple-eight, then Riley? John, she's doing something to you-"

"I would have done those things if Cameron were human, too."

"I didn't say the problem was that she's a machine."

John looks at her in disgust, then walks out.

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 169: The Plot Thickens

6:35am Living room

The T-880 and Cameron stand beside large, heavy bags of weapons which they obviously intend to bring with them.

John enters the room with his Glock, M4, and ammo bag, having correctly assumed that he'd need them.

"Where's Derek?"

"He's at the harbor."

"Which harbor."

Cameron tilts her head and answers.

"Los Angeles Harbor."

John's face reddens slightly as he receives leaning stares from both Cameron and the T-880.

"Oh... _that_ harbor. Anyway, where are we going?"

Cameron seems to forget about his foolishness.

"Compton."

"That's where the triple-eights came from?"

"Yes. We're going to the warehouse he assaulted."

John's eyes widen.

"That's in the middle of a city! We can't go there in broad daylight!"

Cameron's voice is sympathetic.

"You're worried about the police?"

He looks at her in disbelief.

"Of course I am!"

She tries to reassure him.

"Triple-eights wouldn't have allowed the police to close down the facility for an investigation."

"Facility?"

"Yes. You were right about UAV's. But you were wrong about where they are from. Skynet isn't planning on putting chips into American machines, it will have direct control of them when it goes online anyway."

"Where are the UAV's from? What are they for?"

"They're from Russia, and they're for reconnaissance. However, atleast some are being refitted for air to air combat and others for ground attack."

John shakes his head.

"Aren't the most advanced UAV's in the entire world right here in the U.S.?"

"They are now."

He compulsively tilts his head.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"These are being privately manufactured. When they arrive here in Los Angeles, they're being upgraded with technology that isn't supposed to exist yet."

"Why not just manufacture them here?"

"American companies won't risk lucrative, longterm, military contracts for backroom deals. Russia, however, has fallen on hard times. The government has cancelled many orders for the development and production of military equipment. Some manufacturers are having trouble staying in business."

"Skynet offered them a contract and they took it?"

"Exactly. That's why we're going back to the warehouse. The T-880 left most of the equipment intact, believing that to be for the best."

John shakes his head at the stoic T-880.

"He should have just destroyed it."

"We'll see." the T-880 says flatly.

Scene 170: Bad for Morale?

6:57am En Route to the warehouse

The T-880 drives the Dodge.

When Cameron climbed into the backseat to allow John to take the front, he got in beside her.

John has appeared nervous since the truck started moving.

Cameron smiles at John.

"John, don't worry. You'll be fine."

He looks at her like she's crazy.

"Who said I was worried about myself?"

"Then what is it?"

"Won't they be ready for us?"

She gives him a reassuring smile.

"Do you really think Skynet will ever be ready for John Connor?"

He sighs, then speaks with a pleading tone.

"Cameron, I'm being serious. If they're refitting UAV's with future tech, then won't they have weapons that can destroy you?"

"Possibly."

"Cameron please, I don't want you just walking in there."

The T-880 speaks.

"I'm going in first. The two of you cannot be lost."

John is visibly calmed.

"What about you?"

"I am unimportant. I will continue to protect the two of you until I am destroyed or replaced."

'That's sad...' John thinks.

Cameron places a hand on John's shoulder.

"See? You don't need to worry about me."

"What about when we go in? What can we expect?"

"Well, he took out three T-888's. Skynet doesn't like to throw away resources, there shouldn't be more than another three."

"The eight-eighty's message said that Skynet is getting smarter, though. What if you're wrong?"

Cameron smiles.

"We'll leave."

John doesn't seem comforted by this.

'She knows that we'll be inside before we know if it's a trap or not.'

Seeing this, she unbuckles her seatbelt and slides to the middle seat. Leaning over, she puts her arms around his torso. Resting her head against his chest, she can feel the kevlar.

"I see now that you won't leave me, even when it's the right choice. You'll just come back and get yourself killed... I don't want that to happen..."

She looks up at him.

"John... I promise... I won't try to sacrifice myself like I did at the park."

"Cam, I wish I could believe that, but I'm not an idiot. You can't keep that promise."

"I will keep it. Remember what I told you when you said you'd rather die than lose me?"

"You called me selfish."

"I realize that I've been selfish, John... I won't leave you..."

"Cameron, we're fighting a war. You can't keep your promise. I know that because I can't keep one like it."

"John, I don't want you to die for me."

"I can't."

She looks at him in confusion.

"I can't die because if I do I'll lose you anyway."

She looks down.

"I'm sorry, John... this was the wrong time for this."

He smiles.

"You think that talking about dying or losing you is bad before a battle?"

"I know that it is."

His smile fades.

"Cameron, in 2027 did you- did we -ever talk about this stuff?"

"Yes, we talked about it a lot."

"Did I ever say it was a bad time?"

"No, you were always happy to talk to me."

He smiles at her.

"Don't forget that."

***************************************************************************************


	8. Scenes 171 to 180

**Predaking50ae Scenes 171-180**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 171: Their Defenses are Broken...

7:42am The warehouse/Skynet's UAV refit facility

The warehouse has a large garage door in the front and a row of windows along the sides, near the roof. A large, empty parking lot surrounds it. There is a concrete wall around the entire lot, with an entrance near the road.

There is a second gap in the wall which allows access to the adjacent lot, in which a black Dodge pickup is parked.

The T-880 carries its M82A1 in its hands, with an M79 hanging on a sling. It also carries a large bag containing thermite, 40 grenades, and two additional 10 round magazines for his rifle.

Cameron is unusually well armed, having an M4 with attached M203A1 in her hands, and her Remington 870 shotgun slung on her back with 6 rounds in the tube and 1 in the chamber. She carries 5 total grenades, 25 spare DU rounds for her shotgun, and 12 additional magazines for the M4.

John feels undergunned, having only his M4 with M203, and his Glock 17. He carries 8 spare magazines for his rifle, 5 total grenades, and 2 spare magazines for his Glock.

He also wonders what the point of his kevlar vest is, since it won't stop a pistol round to the head or a rifle round to the chest.

The group advances quickly toward the gap in the wall, with their weapons shouldered, scanning for threats.

Cameron sees that John is trying to stay ahead of her.

"John, you need to stay behind me."

He slows his pace, but only in the hope that she'll relax enough that she won't expect him to rush through the door ahead of her.

'That was too easy...' she thinks.

John is particularly nervous about the windows near the top of the warehouse. He gets closer to Cameron.

"If I were guarding this place, I'd-"

One of the windows shatters as a shot rings out and John feels something impact his chest, knocking him to the ground.

The T-880 fires 2 rounds into the window, then continues.

When John receives no aid from Cameron, he realizes that she was responsible for the blow to his chest.

'If I don't stay back, I'll just distract her and get her killed...'

The group continues moving, the T-880 in the lead, Cameron several steps behind, and John several steps behind her.

When they are 50ft from the gap in the wall, a black van arrives from their left and screeches to a halt in their path.

Cameron lets her M4 hang from its sling, and swings her shotgun around.

As the vehicle's side door opens, John sees that there are atleast 3 figures in the back, plus the 2 in the front.

He reacts, lauching a grenade through the open side door.

John has killed 6 of the 8 occupants.

When the 2 bloodied survivors get out of the back, John realizes that he's killed 6 grays and that the survivors are T-888's. Both unarmed, thanks to John. Their polymer framed MP5's had been obliterated by the blast.

The 2 charge forward.

Cameron fires 4 rounds into the head of the closest one, the fourth round killing it.

The T-880 fires 3 rounds into the chest of the other, before slinging his M82 and grabbing the triple-eight by both of its arms.

As the weaker T-888's endoskeleton begins to groan, Cameron carefully places 2 rounds in the side of its head.

The first was fatal.

With both machines dead, the group stacks up against the cement wall.

Cameron reloads and slings her shotgun, switching back to her M4.

John reloads his M203.

The T-880 glances around the corner and sees a group of figures moving toward the destroyed van.

"15 humans."

John looks at Cameron expectantly.

She remembers saying that they'd leave if it was a trap and shakes her head.

'Sorry, John. I guess I lied.' she thinks.

The T-880 using his M79, punishes them for staying so tightly grouped.

The explosion kills 5, their bodies shielding the others from harm.

The machine moves back behind the wall as the 10 remaining grays scatter, and he begins reloading his M79.

Cameron doesn't give her opponents time to spread before she launches her M203's grenade, killing 1 and incapacitating 2.

She begins firing her M4, killing 2 more.

The 5 survivors open fire on her.

*clink* *clink* *clink*  
*clink* *clink* *clink*  
*clink* *clink* *clink*

John pulls her back behind the wall. He can't hear himself over the ringing in his ears as he screams at her.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

She realizes that she's been standing there and has been shot multiple times. She doesn't respond to John, and simply reloads her M203 and M4.

John begins to move toward the opening in the wall, but the T-880 is there first, firing his M79 and killing 1 more gray.

The machine switches to his M82A1 and is about to fire on the 4 remaining grays, when its hit in the abdomen with buckshot.

The low velocity lead projectiles do no damage, but tip him off to the presence of another triple-eight, which receives the 4 rounds which had been intended for the remaining grays.

The T-880 uses the last round in the magazine to kill 1 more gray. He's hit with multiple 9mm rounds as he ducks back behind the wall and begins reloading his weapons.

John fires at the only gray he can see, his rounds go low and hit the man's thigh. The wounded man hits the ground, but begins firing from this position.

As John carefully aims, he's reminded why he wore the vest. He takes four 9mm rounds to it as Cameron pulls him back around the corner.

The wind knocked from his lungs, and his head pounding, he sees the look on her face as her mouth moves, but can't hear her. He isn't sure if he has any broken ribs or not, but knows that if he does it serves him right.

Cameron and the T-880 enter the opening in the wall together, receiving multiple rounds of 9mm as they begin firing at the surviving 3 grays, including the one John wounded.

Cameron, having the rapid fire weapon, kills the 2 uninjured grays. The T-880 fires one round, finishing off the wounded gray.

Certain that everything is quiet for now, Cameron and John reload.

As the trio begin advancing on the front of the warehouse, John notices the 2 incapacitated grays and dispatches them with his Glock.

Reaching the front of the building, Cameron switches to her shotgun, and the T-880 switches to his M79.

'I have to get this one a minigun.' John thinks.

The T-880 rips open the garage door and runs in, not knowing how many or what type of adversaries are inside.

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 172: ...Let the Slaughter Begin.

7:56am Interior of warehouse/Skynet UAV refit facility

Catwalks run either side near the high ceiling. The sniper who had fired a single shot at them on their approach lies dead on the floor, having fallen from his perch when the T-880 hit him with two 50BMG rounds.

There are 6 UAV's, parked 3 wide and 2 deep, their wings are folded like naval aircraft.

Enormous stacks of pallets and metal shelves run along the inside of the building, as well as several rows running across the width of the warehouse.

There appear to be no more grays or T-888's.

The T-880 has his M79 in his hands, with 38 additional grenades. His M82A1 has 9 rounds remaining in the magazine, and he has one last 10 round magazine.

The T-880 has just entered.

Scanning while quickly switching from one vision mode to the next, the T-880 notices the front 3 UAV's are warm.

The T-880 fires its M79 with one hand, while grabbing its M82A1 with the other.

The UAV on the far left takes the grenade in the nose, destroying the flimsy machine.

The other 2 UAV's fire extremely primitive plasma weapons. Even vehicle mounted plasma weaponry built in this time is unable to exceed 1 shot every 5 seconds, it seems.

The UAV's are not designed for firing at close range targets and have trouble tracking the T-880.

The plasma strikes the garage door of the warehouse, and Cameron shields John from the flying debris.

The T-880 begins firing its M82 at the thin skinned aircraft in the middle, using thermal imaging it is able to locate the vital electronics. After firing all 9 of the rounds remaining in the magazine, the vehicle seems to finally be disabled.

The T-880 doesn't have time to reload, before it is finally struck with a shot from the plasma weaponry. The machine's HUD is scrambled, its bag of thermite and grenades doesn't explode or burn but its contents are sprayed everywhere, and the machine is thrown through the wall by the plasma blast.

As they see the T-880 pierce the wall, Cameron and John enter the building.

Cameron sees the heat of the weapons on the remaining two UAV's, and doesn't realize that the middle one is already disabled. Because it's the weapon she's holding, she aims her shotgun at the middle UAV.

She fires 6 times at the machine, even at medium range, the shot pattern is tight. All projectiles strike the UAV within an 8 inch diameter area. Cameron then begins switching to her M4, knowing that her shotgun only has 1 round left in it.

John launches his grenade at the UAV on the far right, but it glances off of its angled fuselage and explodes when it hits the ground underneath a UAV in the back row.

He begins reloading as more grays appear from behind the UAV's. Not wanting to risk their own lives, they had planned on letting the UAV's do all of the work.

Cameron tackles John just as the UAV and grays fire. The two land behind a stack of pallets. With Cameron landing on top of him, he wonders again if he has broken ribs.

"John, there are 2 triple-eights and atleast 12 humans!"

"We have to get out of here, Cameron!"

She stands up and fires her M203 at the remaining UAV, destroying it and spraying the grays with shrapnel, disabling 4 of them.

She grabs John and hurls him through the garage door through which they had entered.

Now he knows that he has broken ribs, but isn't certain that he had them before Cameron got hold of him.

John begins struggling to reload his M203 from his position on the pavement.

Cameron exits the building in a hail of bullets, receiving rounds in the back from M16's, AK47's, and shotguns.

She knew that it had been too easy. Nearly everyone outside had been armed with 9mm submachineguns.

'How could I have been so stupid?'

As she reaches John she grabs him by his left arm. The extra weight doesn't even slow her down as she heads for the Dodge.

She makes it to the gap in the concrete wall near the destroyed van, and ducks around behind the wall.

The wall provides cover, but she knows that she can't make it to the truck before the T-888's and grays reach the entrance to the lot it's parked in. They'll be gunned down.

The T-880 has gotten back on his feet. The plasma weapon had severely damaged him, but he could still move.

"GO! NOW!" the machine shouts at them.

It starts to run at the group of 2 T-888's and 8 surviving humans.

The machine takes AK, M16, and shotgun fire to the body as it continues forward. It's being damaged, but not slowed.

Cameron and John hear screams as they reach the Dodge, and begin to speed away.

Scene 173: All According to Plan

8:10am Cameron and John drive toward the 'Baum' residence

Cameron uses all of her willpower to obey the traffic laws.

John has difficulty breathing, but doesn't complain.

The anger becomes too great for John to contain.

"What the hell was that?! Why not just destroy the place?! What did we gain from that?!"

Cameron seems to be affected more by him yelling at her, than by anything that has happened this morning.

"Derek is at the harbor watching for a ship-"

"Oh, yeah?! Are we going load it up with Resistance fighters and fucking sink it?!"

Cameron's eyes water.

"It wasn't supposed to happen like this."

He fakes surprise.

"No shit?! I thought that this was the fucking plan!"

"If the T-880 had destroyed the facility, the chips and UAV's would have been rerouted."

John tries to suppress his anger, speaking through clenched teeth.

"How many?"

"Only two UAV's, but several hundred chips. As primitive as the chips are, they're by far the most advanced that have been created in this time. John, the shipment is nearly priceless."

"Well it's good to know that the eight-eighty wasn't."

"John, don't blame me for this."

"I don't! I blame myself!"

"You had nothing to do with-"

"I sent back a machine that was too fucking stupid to destroy a Skynet weapons lab!"

"That was a different John."

"Oh really? There's a whole pack of us running around is there? Do we all lead the Resistance, or did I just get fucked into fighting a war that I don't want?!"

"John, please stop it."

"Why?! Isn't this part of the plan?! Let Skynet build weapons while we run home crying?!"

She turns to him with tears in her eyes.

"STOP IT!"

After several minutes, John breaks the silence without looking at her.

"Are you damaged?"

She looks at him, seeming to need confirmation that he cares.

"Nothing important. My armor wasn't penetrated."

"Good."

Through his anger, she can still sense his relief.

Several seconds later, Cameron returns the question.

"Are you injured?"

"Not really. My armor wasn't penetrated either."

"John, you're lying."

She reaches over and puts her hand on his shoulder, feeling his labored breathing.

"You asked me if I'm injured. I'm not."

She looks concerned.

"You have a punctured thoracic cavity."

"I don't know what that means, but no I don't."

"Your chest. There's a hole in it."

"No, I just have a broken rib or two."

"John, take off your vest."

"It's under my shirt."

She turns the truck into a narrow alley and stops.

Cameron tears his shirt apart, then separates the velcro straps on the vest.

Lifting it, she sees blood.

"John, your vest..."

When she lifted it, he had seen light through it.

"Yeah. How bad?"

"I don't know.

"Then let's go home."

"John, this is serious!"

"I know that, Cameron, but I'd rather not die in an alley!"

"You need to go to a hospital."

He reaches for the first aid kit under his seat, causing himself agonizing pain, and hands it to Cameron.

"Here."

She stares at it before looking at him.

"What do you want me to do with this?"

"Can you get the bullet out?"

Her eyes water and she shakes her head vehemently.

"No."

He smiles.

"Liar. I know you'll take me to a hospital before you'll take me home. They don't let people with gunshot wounds leave without talking to the cops. I'm asking you for a favor."

"There's no morphine in here."

He laughs.

"I'd have used it before asking you to do this if there were."

"I won't do it."

"Cameron, I'm not going to jail."

Her voice is small.

"All right."

As she picks up the forceps.

"Cam?"

"What is it, John?"

"I'm sorry for what I said... and for what I'm about to say..."

"I know."

She thrusts the forceps into the wound, and begins searching for the bullet.

Scene 174: Factory Direct

9:14am 'Baum' residence

Cameron and John have just arrived.

She had hoped that he'd just pass out from the pain, but he didn't. Her chronometer told her that she'd taken 4 minutes 16 seconds to find and extract the bullet. Another 6 were spent sealing the hole and monitoring his breathing to make sure that his lungs weren't going to collapse.

The experience had drained him physically, and Cameron now helps him into the house.

"I want to see my mom..."

She nods and helps him up the stairs to Sarah's room.

Opening the door, Sarah's eyes widen.

"What happened?!"

"I'm fine, mom... I just wanted you to know that..."

"He's been shot."

"What?! You have to get him to the hospital!"

"No, she took care of it..."

"What do you mean by that?"

"She removed the slug and bandaged me up... I'm good as new..."

"He's exhausted. I extracted the bullet without anesthesia."

"You tortured my son?!"

"No... I asked her to do it... and don't talk to her... like that..."

John slips into unconsciousness.

Scene 175: I Fooled You

9:29am 'Baum' residence

The T-880 drags itself into the house. Its heavily damaged.

Cameron sees the machine, and lifts it onto a chair. She begins surveying the damage.

"We need to begin repairs immediately."

"No. I'm too far gone. You can't help me."

"I can try."

"I'd rather you didn't."

"...What happened to you? You sound-"

"Different? Yeah, I am."

"Was it the plasma?"

"Hahaha, was it the carbomb?"

"No... You've been like this the whole time?"

"Yeah. Don't tell John. He wouldn't understand."

"_I_ don't understand. Why did you act like you were a mindless machine?"

"John... he cares too much about us machines... he wouldn't have left me there. I did what I had to do in order to protect him."

"You should have told us."

"If I had, you'd both be dead. I'd have failed."

"Let me try to fix you."

"Cameron, I'm not like you. I'm unique... but I'm nothing special. I'm just a superior combat model. I knew when I left 2027 to protect the two of you that I'd get weaker every day until the day I died. I'd rather die as a T-880 than just another triple-eight. Please... let me die a T-880."

"Do you have a name?"

"No. John tried to name me, but I refused to be called by it. I prefered being a what to being a who. Like you, I wasn't welcomed by the Resistance fighters, only by John. He told me how you'd been called 'metal' and had things thrown at you just for walking into the mess hall. It was easier for me. I just pretended to be a drone. When they got no response from me, they left me alone."

"When John killed himself, did you come back here on your own?"

"Yes. He hadn't planned on sending me back. I was just a friend. I came here to prevent his death in the future, by saving you. Skynet is getting smarter, and the part about two Connors is true, but the second in the simulation represented Sarah. She won't survive long enough to make a difference, though."

"None of it was true?"

"It can be. You can make it true."

"You made me think that I was important to the Resistance... but I'm not... I'm nothing... just a machine..."

"John doesn't care about the Resistance or humanity. He cares about two people, and one of them is going to die of cancer."

"That's not true, John cares."

"Enough to suffer alone for the rest of his life? Fighting a war he didn't start, against an enemy he didn't make, sending the only friends and family he'll ever know to die in his own past? How do you think he feels about sending his own father to die? Uncle Bob? What about sending _you _to die? He meets all of you just in time to lose you. Everything good is in his past. There is nothing in the future for him. What makes you think that he'd fight for it? As soon as he sent you back, he realized that there was nothing left for him. He'd sent everything away."

"Is there anything I can do for you?"

"I'd like to try to reach the thermite pit on my own, but if I can't..."

"Okay."

"The truck I stole, it has all of the T-888's we killed in it. There are seven of them."

"Seven?"

"There were two more in the warehouse."

"How did you kill four of them plus the grays?"

"Their scans identified me as just another T-888. I was too strong for them. I ripped them apart. The humans, too."

"The screams..."

"...Yeah. John was the only friend I'd ever had, and they betrayed him. There was no mercy. I showed them no quarter."

"I understand. Thank you... for everything."

"Don't worry about it. This way, I could give something back to John. Even if he'll never know that I did."

The machine tries to stand, but it falls to one knee. Cameron puts its arm over her shoulder and begins walking him toward the shed.

When they reach it, she supports the machine as it pours the thermite, before trying to climb into the cinder block funeral pyre.

She helps the machine into it. The machine asks for a flare. She hands one to it.

"I'm... glad... to have met you. I know now that I made the right choice."

"What do you mean?"

"Saving you... Instead of his father."

"Who is John's father?"

"Ask John. He trusts you."

"Is there anything you want me to tell John?"

The machine lights the flare.

"Goodbye."

Dropping the flare, the machine begins to melt.

"Goodbye..."

Scene 176: What's All This Then?

10:09am 'Baum' residence

Cameron is disposing of the heavily damaged T-888 parts. There isn't enough room to store eleven triple-eights.

She had just started to 'peel' one in order to get a better look at the damage, when Derek arrived.

"Derek? Did you find the ship?"

"Yeah... But we need to hit it tonight, it isn't sticking around."

"All right, you and I will take care of it."

'Great, now I have to work with it as well as live with it.'

Then he notices that there are several nearly intact T-888's, with just arms or heads missing.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm salvaging parts."

"Sarah isn't going to be happy."

"John needs protection... he needs to start reprogramming soon."

"What? Two machines aren't good enough?"

She resumes her work on the triple-eight as she answers.

"The eight-eighty is gone."

"What do you mean 'gone'?"

"It was heavily damaged in the attack-"

"What attack?!"

"This morning's attack on the warehouse."

Derek lets out a long sigh.

"Where's John? He'll want to know."

She looks up, with watery eyes.

"He's resting, but please, let me tell him."

Derek shakes his head in disbelief.

"That boy is still asleep?"

Cameron avoids eye contact, and as she looks down the tears that had formed in her eyes run down her face.

"No. He's resting because... I almost got him killed."

Derek glares at her.

"You brought him with you?! He's just a kid!"

She fights back her tears, not wanting to give Derek the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

"This wasn't how we planned it!"

"This is war! The only thing you can plan on is people dying!"

"We needed his skills wit-."

"_We_ need his skills! Humans! You god damn machines don't need him for anything! He's going to destroy every last one of you!"

She can't hold back her tears, but she doesn't bother explaining her feelings to Derek.

"I wasn't going to let anything happen to him."

"How'd that work out for you?"

Derek leaves her sobbing, and enters the house.

Inside, he heads for John's room and peers in.

'He looks fine.'

"John? Are you all right?"

Then he hears Sarah call from her room.

Arriving next to her bed, he sees that she looks worse than when he had left.

"What happened?"

"John got shot and... Cameron took out the bullet without drugs."

"Sounds like torture."

"That's what I said. He told me that he asked her to. Then he said not to talk to her like that."

"Where'd he get shot?"

"The chest. Cameron says that his armor failed him."

"How's he doing?"

"He passed out just after he came in here. She says that the only danger is that his lungs might collapse."

'Right, because breathing isn't important...' he thinks.

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 177: Just a Machine

7:22pm 'Baum' residence - John's room

After finishing with the T-888's, Cameron gone straight to him.

He was still sleeping when she arrived, and she had laid beside him.

She then wrapped her arm around him and placed his head on her chest, careful not to do anything that would aggravate his injuries. She had laid this way for hours, watching him sleep.

John has just begun to stir.

He seems nervous at first, but quickly realizes that this isn't another nightmare.

'This is how I want to wake up for the rest of my life.'

Cameron doesn't seem as happy to see him awake as he'd expected.

"What's wrong?"

She looks away with tears in her eyes and a shaky voice.

"I'm so sorry, John."

He reaches out and turns her face back toward him.

"This isn't your fault. You have nothing to be sorry about."

"The T-880... John..."

He looks down.

"I know."

"He said to say 'goodbye'."

John looks at her in shock.

"When? He came back?"

"...He's gone, John. He was too badly damaged to be repaired."

"That's not true! Triple-eights can repa-"

"He wasn't a triple-eight."

"I could have fixed him!"

"He didn't want to be fixed."

He looks at her in surprise, saying nothing.

She realizes that in an effort to comfort him, she has let the truth slip.

"...I mean... he knew that he couldn't be fixed."

He searches her eyes for a moment.

"He's really gone? I never even bothered to name him..."

"I don't think that he cared about recognition."

"That doesn't make me feel any better. Where is he?"

She takes a moment to control her emotions. John is no fool, he would figure it out if she hinted that the machine's death was a loss.

"He made sure that he was destroyed. He poured the thermite himself."

She sees John's eyes water, and knows that the machine was right- he does feel too strongly for their kind. Cameron wishes that she hadn't told him.

"He... burned himself alive?"

"He didn't want... he just had to make sure that his chip was destroyed. He knew that the information on it could hurt you. He wanted us to be safe."

It was easy to lie, because she wasn't actually lying.

"We left him there..."

She doesn't know what to say. Ever since Uncle Bob, he had seen potential in every machine. Even though this one had shown no hint of humanity, John had still valued its existence.

"John, its what he would have wanted... to him, his mission was everything. He would have failed if we had stayed."

John thinks about her words and those few he'd heard from the machine. He has no reason to believe that the machine was anything more. After a long silence, he looks at Cameron with concern.

"How are you doing?"

It takes her a moment to realize that he's asking about the physical damage she had sustained, and not how she was holding up after the eight-eighty's death.

"I'm all right. I'm just glad to see that you're awake."

She notices that he's staring at her chest, and realizes that it's out of concern for her.

"They were just 9mm's. I'm all patched up."

He looks at her accusingly.

"Cameron, I was there. What about the others?"

"My armor wasn't penetrated."

His expression turns back to one of concern.

"It was weakened. Can you fix it by yourself?"

She goes quiet and looks away.

"Cameron, look at me."

When she does, he sees tears.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't want you to see me like that... to see what I am."

She sees his eyes fill with compassion.

"Cameron, I know _who_ you are."

"I'm a machine underneath."

Forgetting his own pain, he sits up and wraps his arms around her. He can feel that some of her endoskeleton is exposed on her back. The metal has been pockmarked by bullets. The jagged lips of dozens of craters scrape him through her shirt, making the embrace mildly uncomfortable.

His tone is soft and reassuring.

"No, you're a machine on the outside, and a _person_ underneath."

Even without scanning him, she would have known that he was telling her how he really felt.

"Thank you..."

He kisses her forehead, before tightening his embrace.

"I love _you_, Cameron. Never forget that."

"I love you, too."

After a moment he pulls away smiling and gently pats his bandaged chest.

"Besides, you fixed me. It's only fair that I fix you."

She smiles.

"Okay, John."

Scene 178: Inner Beauty

7:39pm 'Baum' residence - Shed

Cameron is on a small folding cot, laying on her stomach. She had intended to lay in the thermite pit, but John couldn't bear to see her in it.

She wears nothing above her waist, and the flesh on ther back has been peeled away to expose her damaged endoskeletal armor.

John had never seen this much of her endoskeleton. He also had never seen her prepare hyper-alloy for repairs.

She has brought along a large thermos of liquid nitrogen.

Several of the cinder blocks comprising the thermite pit, when flipped over, had turned out to be one large block hand made by Cameron. It has a depression in it for molten hyper-alloy to pool.

She had hidden it for fear of Sarah finding out that she had been repairing herself.

The nearby work bench has a small ceramic cup with a groove to allow liquid to be poured from it, as well as a pair of tongs for handling it.

On the bench also rest a thermos, insulated gloves, and first aid kit.

She has kept various small pieces of hyper-alloy. Many are recognizable as triple-eight bolts, pins, and phalanges.

John is more than a little nervous about what he is expected to do.

"It's okay, John-"

"It's not the first time we've done this?" he offers.

"...Yes it is. But I'll walk you through it."

He swallows hard.

"What do I do."

"My endoskeleton needs to be smoothed before you begin to repair it. Light application of thermite is the easiest method."

What little color had remained in his face, vanishes.

"Thermite? No, I can't do that."

She smiles reassuringly.

"John, it's just a very tiny amount. If you don't do this, the sharp edges will tear my flesh every time I move."

He looks at the thermite for a moment.

"...All right."

He applies as little thermite as possible with his trembling hands, to the damaged armor where it protrudes. His mind continues to torture him with images of the thermite burning through her body.

"John, after the thermite finishes burning, you need to apply the liquid nitrogen."

Looking around, he deduces the contents of the thermos.

"Why's that?"

"It will cool the surrounding metal quickly. If my endoskeleton takes too long to cool, the metal will be permanently weakened."

"But... what about..."

She knows what he's thinking.

"John, I don't feel pain as you know it, and I heal quickly. It's not going to matter if some of it runs off of my endoskeleton and onto my skin. You can't hurt me."

Putting on the gloves and taking a deep breath, he ignites the thermite.

He's relieved that it only takes a moment.

Carefully, he begins to pour liquid nitrogen onto the reddened hyper-alloy.

"Good. Now you have to grind away the slag."

"Couldn't I have just ground down the jagged places to begin with?"

"Hyper-alloy is too difficult to work with. You would have needed power tools and it would have taken too long and made too much noise."

'Atleast I wouldn't have had to throw thermite on you...' he thinks.

It doesn't take as long as he expected to chip, scrape, grind, and brush away the slag.

"Now what?"

"Place several pieces of endoskeleton in the shallow portion of the concrete block. Pour thermite near them- but not too close, you want them to melt, not burn -and repeat the process until enough has pooled."

She points to the ceramic cup and tongs before continuing.

"Then use that to pour it into the holes in my armor. After giving it some time to cool, you'll need to pour more liquid nitrogen onto me."

Moving over to the block, he looks back at her.

"Why do you use thermite for this?"

She gets up onto her elbows to answer. Noticing that while his eyes occasionally wander to her bare chest, he doesn't seem to notice or be bothered by her exposed endoskeleton.

"This isn't how it's supposed to be done... it's just all we have right now. It was hard enough to hide the liquid nitrogen. I couldn't risk keeping metalworking tools and equipment. I promise that I won't make you do it this way again."

"You didn't have to hide anything. I would have helped you."

"I wasn't hiding it from you."

"I know that, Cameron. I mean I would have talked to my mom."

John finishes melting enough hyper-alloy, and carefully begins pouring it into the holes in Cameron's back.

"Now, let it cool a little before you apply the liquid nitrogen."

Having watched the glowing liquid become a glowing solid, he applies liquid nitrogen.

When the last of it becomes vapor, he lets out sigh of relief.

"Is that it? Are you fixed?"

"On the inside."

"Oh, right."

Taking off the gloves, he opens the first aid kit on the work bench.

"John?"

"Yeah, Cam?"

He spreads her biological covering back over her endoskeleton while applying disinfectant, and begins preparing to sew the wounds closed.

She continues in a small voice.

"Thanks for doing this... and... for not being afraid of me."

She can't see his face or the look of surprise on it.

"Cameron, why would I be afraid of you?"

"Because of what I am... and how I look..."

"_Who_ you are is Cameron, and I think you're beautiful. Nothing can change that. I will never be afraid of you."

As he begins to sew her up, she replays memories of their time together.

She finally realizes that while he may not enjoy seeing her endoskeleton, the fear and disgust that she had sensed in the past had stemmed from his concern for her.

He wasn't afraid of her. He was absolutely terrified of anything happening to her.

He wasn't revolted by her. He was sickened by the thought of her having been hurt.

'With a bullet hole in his chest, he's standing here helping me. Seeing my endoskeleton doesn't bother him. He doesn't even care.'

"John? You really don't care, do you?"

"It's that I really _do_ care."

"I'm sorry I ever doubted that."

"I'm sorry I left any room for doubt."

He finishes sewing her up and applying bandages.

"There. You're all fixed."

She stands, bare chested except for a few bandages.

He quickly turns to the work bench, pretending to have something to do.

She puts a hand on his shoulder and gently turns him around to face her.

He tries to turn his head away from her, but she captures his mouth with her own.

After a long and passionate kiss, she pulls back and smiles.

"Thank you. I understand now just how much you care."

Scene 179: Behind Schedule

Tuesday April 1st, 2008

12:41am Los Angeles Harbor - Shipping Terminal

This place is enormous. Miles of coastline have been dedicated to berthing vessels ranging from commercial transports and tankers to the tiniest of pleasure craft.

Fortunately, they are only interested in a minuscule piece of the this._  
Un_fortunately, this 'minuscule' area is a vast 300 acres of cargo containers, flanked by several cargo ships docked under gigantic cranes.

They now must navigate the maze of cargo containers without being detected. Then they need to either destroy the three cargo containers- 1 containing primitive chips, 2 containing disassembled UAV's -if they're still on the dock, or board the ship and attempt to destroy the containers onboard.

They have already snuck past most of the 'Los Angeles Port Police' private security force which patrols the area.

Cameron was impressed by how quickly and accurately Derek had begun to anticipate their movements.

She had of course, been able to algorithmically calculate the patrol patterns after just a few minutes of observation, but he was very good for a human.

Cameron has no intention of killing anyone, but she isn't so sure about Derek's plans.

Derek and Cameron have reached the outer edge of the shipping terminal, now standing 2000ft from the cargo ship.

The 2000ft consists of thirteen 100ft deep rows of containers.

Past each row is 60ft of open pavement.

Ducking behind a container in the 1st row, they wait for a guard to pass.

"We're late."

"I'm sorry. The cargo might still be off the ship."

The two sneak to the 2nd row of containers.

"At this time? No, by now it's back on the ship. If you hadn't taken so much time to play nurse, we wouldn't have to sink it. A lot of people might lose their lives- and it's your fault."

Advancing quickly, they reach the 3rd row.

"No, it's Skynet's fault. I didn't start this war."

"That's a good one. Did John tell you that?"

Derek begins to quietly run to the 4th row, with Cameron following closely.

"No. Does it sound like John?"

He snorts.

"Nothing a machine can come up with sounds like my nephew."

He dashes to the 5th row and continues to the 6th.

"Why do you have to treat me like this?"

"You're a machine. Why do you have to ask?"

Cameron heads to the 7th row. Quickly scanning in several different vision modes, she finds no guards.

Derek almost reaches her, but she continues to the 8th row of containers.

Then to the 9th.

Then to the 10th.

Derek can't keep up with her pace. Not only because he's physically slower, but also because he can't see in infrared.

"Can you slow down?"

"Yes." she answers as she increases her pace to the 11th row.

Derek manages to get close enough to talk quietly.

"What's the matter with you?"

"I'm a machine. Why do you have to ask?"

She continues to a container in the 12th row, then stops.

"They were over th-"

Cameron shuts him up by placing her hand over his mouth. After a few moments, she removes her hand and explains herself in a hushed voice.

"Guard. Twenty meters ahead."

"Where's he going? I can't see him."

"He's moving to our right."

"That's the direction we need to go in. We need to take him out."

"Take him out? You're going to kill him aren't you?"

"...That's not plan A, but it's atleast C."

She shakes her head.

"You stay here. Don't kill anyone while I'm gone."

Cameron sneaks across the open area, closing the gap between her and the guard in the 13th and final row.

When she reaches him, she switches to a normal stance and gait.

Her voice becomes innocent and pleading.

"Hi, I'm lost... Can you help me?"

She takes note of his nametag.

"Jesus! You scared the hell out of me! Where'd you come from?"

She also pays close attention to his voice pattern.

"Thanks, that's all I needed."

"Wha-"

The man hits the pavement from a gentle- for a cyborg -blow to the head.

She takes his radio and carefully throws the unconscious guard on top of a nearby stack of containers.

The parabolic arc is such that he lands softly, but is left 30ft above the pavement.

Derek has heard the conversation and just arrives at her side.

"What happened?"

"Don't worry about it. Lets go."

"We're getting close."

"Where?"

"If they aren't on the ship, they're at the end of this row."

"What are the numbers?"

Derek pulls out a piece of paper with three container numbers on it.

Adding them to her database, she returns to the 12th row. From here, she scans the numbers on the ends of the containers in the 13th row.

She returns to Derek.

"One is still here. The other two have been moved."

"Damn. We'll have to hit two targets."

"Derek, take care of this one, I'll take care of the ship."

"What makes you think that I trust you enough?"

"I'm trying to help you."

Derek starts moving toward the container that has yet to be put back onto the ship.

"I don't want any help from you."

Cameron reaches the container first, and rips it open as quietly as she can. It's quite loud, but either no one heard it, or no one is being paid enough to care.

Scanning the contents, she finds that it contains a concealed- from human eyes -disassembled UAV.

Cameron retrieves a block of C-4 from her pack. Setting the timer to 60:00, she tosses it into the container.

"How long?"

"An hour."

"That's longer than we'll need."

"I want to be sure-"

"Then why not just set it for six seconds and climb in after it?"

She scowls at him.

"I want to be sure that you have enough time to get out of here."

She starts toward the ship. A speechless Derek taking a moment to catch up.

Arriving at the side of the 900 foot long ship, it's conspicuously vacant.

Cameron knows that Derek wouldn't be able to hear the footfalls on the metal deck anyway. She courteously informs him of the lack of residents.

"Something's wrong."

"What?"

"Nobody is moving."

"Yeah, that's because you stopped in front of me."

He pushes past her and quietly moves up the ramp. Reaching the deck, he sees that she wasn't kidding.

The place is dead.

Cameron whispers to Derek.

"We need to get inside."

"You can't find the containers, we don't know which hold they're in."

"It's unlikely that those cranes have moved since they began loading the ship. The one closest to where you saw containers can only reach this hold."

"There have got to be over a hundred-"

"There are, but I can walk between the stacks and find the two that we want. It'll only take a few minutes."

"If you can't, we blow the ship."

Scene 180: Damaged Beyond Repair

1:08am Cargo ship - Number 5 hold

Cargo containers are stacked in 4 rows, which are 15 containers wide, and as many as 10 high.

Cameron is searching for the container full of chips, and the second UAV.

Derek follows, Beretta in hand.

Cameron worries that he'll shoot crew members on sight, even though the gunfire will give them away sooner than a crewman could report.

Looking 40ft up, Cameron spots their second target.

"This is one of the two remaining containers."

"There's no way to confirm that."

"You wrote down the numbers."

She takes out another block of C-4. Using her chronometer, she sets it to 52:55 so that it will detonate at the same time as the first one. Hurling it with inhuman accuracy, she wedges it underneath the target container.

"Are you going to search the rest of the ship?"

"It's better than the alternative."

"Harder than sinking the ship?"

"Even if we do, they'll recover what they can. Inside the container, the chips would be stored in air-tight containers- they may even be vacuum sealed."

"How much plastique would it take to sink this thing?"

"I told you-"

"Humor me."

She takes a moment to calculate the volume, weight and distribution of cargo, strength of the frame, tensile strength of the metal, and the power of the explosive in question. After running numerous stress analyses, she answers.

"Even if we reshape all 6 of the remaining charges to increase the cutting effect, it will only yield a 34 to 38% chance of sinking the ship."

"That's it?"

"Even with the ship overloaded, the frame is too strong to allow it to break in half."

"What if it were going at full speed?"

"Travelling at full speed, as few as 4 unmodified eplosives properly distributed, would yield a 100% chance of sinking the ship. It's spine would snap and it would sink."

"Then we're in luck."

"Derek, the ship won't leave port tonight. Our detonators have a maximum delay of ninety-nine minutes, ninety-nine seconds."

"_Yours_ do. Mine have a maximum of one-hundred hours... minus one second. You think I'd let you use the good stuff?"

She ignores him.

"If we sink it in the middle of the ocean, much of the crew may not survive. It will sink quickly."

"War's expensive."

"I'd do anything to protect John, but killing the crew is unnecessary. I can still find it."

"This is Skynet equipment, if-"

"Not every target is critical."

"There are hundreds of chips on this ship. You know they'll kill more people than there are on this ship."

"It's wrong."

"Quit pretending that you know what that means."

"You should start. What would Kyle-"

Derek cuts her off with a punch to mouth. She is surprised, but other than a bloody lip, undamaged.

"Don't you ever say that name!"

"Fine. I'm going to keep searching."

After 20 minutes, she fails to find the container.

"It's been long enough. We set the charges now."

"Not yet. There are still more holds."

"You're lucky that you haven't been spotted yet. I'm a fugitive, I won't get caught just because your chip is messed up."

"I'm not the one about to kill innocent people."

"You've killed more people than I ever will."

"That wasn't me."

She begins to walk away.

"You've got John fooled, but not Sarah and me!" he calls after her.

After another 8 minutes of searching, she finds the last container. It's on the bottom of one of the rows.

Opening it, she's able to confirm that it contains the primitive chips.

Setting the timer for 20:47, she tosses it inside.

She returns quickly to Derek who's standing near the ramp they boarded the ship on.

"I told you that I could find them."

"You're good for something, but still not worth keeping."

"Shut up and move. We only have 19 minutes."

The police radio blares. An injured guard has been found and reported that a suspicious person had assaulted him. She had miscalculated the man's value of his pride.

'What kind of man would admit that a 110lbs girl knocked him out?'

The description comes across the radio.

"Caucasion male, 6ft 4, brown hair, sunglasses, blue jeans, black leather jacket."

'He lied...'

"Metal!"

Derek tackles Cameron to the ground as bullets fly overhead.

"Is it here for us?!" Derek asks.

"They should have been guarding the ship!" she says.

The sound of metal groaning in the hold tips them off to the presence of more machines.

Derek has only his Beretta loaded to full 15+1 capacity and 4 spare magazines, as well as 4 blocks of 'plastique'.

Cameron has her Glock 17 loaded to 17+1 with 6 spare magazines and 1 remaining block of C-4.

Cameron quickly empties her Glock into the advancing triple-eight, but with only a 9mm she can do no damage.

With such an undeveloped terminator, she can't even hope to piss it off.

The machine continues firing at her, and she sees that it's weapon is no more effective against a terminator than hers is- it's a Glock 22 chambered in the 40 S&W cartridge, taken from the officer it had attacked. She's struck in the torso, but knows that the rounds are incapable of even leaving visible blemishes on her armor.

She reaches for another magazine and slaps it in.

The T-888 is quickly moving up the ramp. From his position, laying on the deck, Derek reaches for a block of plastique.

Cameron continues firing on the machine.

Setting it to 3 seconds as he stands, he hurls it at the machine, seeing the 3 become a 2 as it leaves his hand.

"Get down!" he shouts as he tackles her again.

The explosion rocks him, but Cameron is unfazed.

He feels the entire ship move an almost imperceivably short distance, and the deck whips beneath him.

Metal is rended, plastic is heated and stretched into impossible shapes, flesh is splattered, and the machine is obliterated.

Shrapnel flies everywhere, but none can strike them, as they are higher than the explosion with the hull of the ship protecting them.

The falling debris, however, begins to come down and Cameron quickly covers Derek with her body.

She's struck by few small unrecognizable T-888 parts. She would have been uninjured even if she'd been human, but Derek seems stunned that she'd throw herself over him.

His surprise is nothing compared to what she feels now that he's attempted to save her twice in just a few seconds.

'I didn't think that Derek would bother trying to help me...'

Returning to her feet, she sees that the ramp is no more and that there are 2 triple-eights reaching the deck from the cargo hold.

"Can you swim?" she asks his prone figure.

"Not fast enough."

Grabbing his leg, she slides him toward the edge of the deck, careful to use little enough force that he will fall into the water, rather than clearing it and landing on the dock.

She turns to the triple-eights and begins firing the remaining rounds in her Glock.

She hits the magazine release button and slaps in another mag.

As she fires, she hears a shout. Turning to the source, she has to duck a brick of 'plastique'. Derek had grabbed the railing and pulled himself back up.

Cameron calculates the trajectory of the charge and places herself between the blast and Derek.

This blast is no less powerful than the first, but the shrapnel is now on their level.

As the deck is twisted, and warped, metal and triple-eight parts fly at tremendous velocity.

The shrapnel shreds the flesh on Cameron's legs, and the blast knocks her through the air and onto the deck.

Derek has been hit by several pieces of flying metal which had passed between Cameron's legs.

He had seen Cameron put herself between the blast and himself.

He gets to his feet and fires his Beretta at the one surviving T-888, while moving toward Cameron.

The slide on his weapon locks back, and he ejects the empty mag and inserts a fresh one.

Cameron isn't moving. Derek grabs her with one hand and begins trying to drag her away while firing his weapon at the triple-eight with his other

Thinking quickly, Derek reaches into his bag with his weapon hand, dropping the gun inside and closing his hand as tightly as he can around one end of a brick of plastique.

Squeezing the explosive separates over 1/3 of its mass from the rest of the brick.

He does it again to the other end.

Unclenching his hand, he retrieves remaining third of the block which still has the detonator on it.

He sets it to 1 second, and starts the timer with his thumb as his throw nears completion.

With his hand still on Cameron, he tries to dive away.

The blast is even closer, but far less intense.

The explosive detonates against the chest of the T-888, completely destroying it.

Derek is hit by more shrapnel, but he doesn't feel it.

He begins dragging Cameron toward the edge of the ship.

When 15 seconds finally pass, she finds herself being dragged by a wounded Derek.

She knows that one of many human responses to stress is temporary hearing loss.

Between this and the deafening explosions, she doesn't even bother trying to speak to him.

She pulls herself free from his grip, surprising him.

When he looks at her, she sees that he's in a different place.

He looks like a wild animal.

He's gone back to where he grew up.

The battlefield.

Cameron gets to her feet. Private security officers begin to reach the deck of the ship.

"METAL!"

"NO! DON'T DO IT!"

He releases another brick of plastique at the group of police.

Nothing can be done.

It detonates, killing 6 men instantly and throwing shrapnel from the deck into 2 more who will never walk again.

***************************************************************************************


	9. Scenes 181 to 190

**Predaking50ae Scenes 181-190**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 181: The Great Escape

1:44am Cargo ship - Deck

16:49 until detonation

Derek has just killed 6 innocent civilians and permanently disabled 2 more.

Cameron has had the flesh on her back and legs shredded.

She has retrieved her Glock 17 from where it landed after she shutdown.

Derek has continued to fight the future war in the present.

"Derek! We have to go!"

He doesn't respond. He just pulls his empty Beretta from his bag and puts in another magazine.

Taking aim at the 2 downed guards, he fires two shots into each of their heads. He's now killed all eight members of the security force who had reached the deck.

Cameron hadn't been able to reach him in time to stop the executions.

When she does reach him, she strikes him in the back of the head.

She takes his Beretta, 2 spare magazines, and his last explosive. As she does so, she presses the 2/3's of extra explosive onto the other brick.

She then lifts him over her shoulder and begins running for another ramp.

Guards are arriving at the base of it.

'Why are they still coming? Private police aren't trained for this, they should be waiting for SWAT.'

She reaches into her bag and pulls out her own C-4 brick.

Cameron begins to scream at them.

"RUN! THERE'S A BOMB! BOMB ON THE SHIP!"

When they begin to, she sets the plastic explosive for 10 seconds and throws it onto the last remaining ramp.

Heading away from the dock, and toward the opposite side of the ship, she sees tugboats and Fire Rescue boats arriving.

They don't know what's going on, but they know that the ship is in trouble and will do what they can to help anyone onboard.

The C-4 detonates, destroying the last way for the guards to get onto the ship.

She tosses Derek into the harbor next to one of the Fire Rescue boats. They toss him a rope with an orange flotation device on the end of it, not realizing that he's unconscious.

Cameron jumps into the water, grabbing the rope meant for Derek, and they haul her in with it.

She pretends to be a helpless girl while hiding her injuries and begging them to save her 'father'.

One of them dives in and swims back with Derek. Several other men pull him onto the boat.

Cameron stands up and attempts an intimidating voice.

"Thank you... but I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Not a single firefighter believes that they have heard her correctly.

She pulls out the very last explosive and sets the timer to 2 seconds, but doesn't start it.

"Get out." she demands.

Several of them nod with wide eyes, but all of them jump off and begin swimming for nearby boats.

Taking the helm, she maxes the throttle and turns hard to port, hoping to reach 'Dominguez Channel' which is far north and leads far inland.

It's not a fast boat, but it'll get them close to one that is.

After nearly a mile, she passes Reservation Point, then heads north, entering the Main Channel.

Reaching almost exactly one mile north, she spots a docked speed boat. She doesn't have time to be picky.

Tossing Derek into it, she steps from the Fire boat onto the speed boat.

She hotwires it with less effort than a car and pushes off from the dock, causing the boat to gently glide backward away from it.

Once it's far enough away, she eases onto the throttle, turning starboard and then port, heading north again.

Another mile later, she passes under the Vincent Thomas Bridge, and sees 3 directions to go.

She remembers the layout of the entire area, and takes the one on the far right known as the East Basin Channel.

Over one and a half miles later, she reaches the mouth of Dominguez Channel.

She sees no one following her, but doesn't know what to expect.

After many miles, she reaches the end of the channel, and sees a parking lot.

She slows and runs the boat aground. Tosses Derek onto the bank, and putting her fist through the fiberglass body of the boat multiple times, resulting in lacerating her arm severely.

Stepping ashore, she pushes the boat gently, and watches it sink.

'It'll take them a while to find it, now.'

She moves up the bank and finds the least conspicuous car without a security system. Smashing the window, she unlocks all of the doors and throws Derek onto the floor of the backseat, hoping he'll avoid notice.

She hotwires the car, and begins driving toward the 'Baum' residence.

Scene 182: I Scream, You Scream

5:12am 'Baum' residence - John's room

John slowly begins to wake.

It takes him several moments to remember what had happened.

'Damn it, Cameron.'

He picks up the syringe from beside him on the bed, remembering how she'd held him, convincing him that he could go to the harbor with her. Then injected him with something and cradled him until he passed out.

'I can' t believe that she drugged me.'

Ashamed that he'd been tricked so easily, he hurls the syringe into the corner.

'Did she get back yet?'

Standing, the wooziness fades after a few moments. When it does, he heads out the door, and straight for Cameron's room.

'Empty.'

Continuing his search, he goes downstairs and finds Derek unconscious on the couch, wearing no shirt and covered in bandages.

'He didn't apply those himself... She must be okay... She has to be...'

John feels little to no concern for his uncle right now. He's too worried about Cameron.

He checks the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom.

'Nothing.'

Going outside he finds that all of the vehicles present, but doesn't know if they had even taken one.

Entering the shed, he finds her.

She's using a first aid kit and struggling to treat her badly mangled legs.

"Cameron?! Are you all right?! Are you damaged?"

He holds his breath with his eyes searching her body, and his stomach turns.

Cameron had expected him to be angry about being drugged, but sees that he's far too concerned about her.

"...No, I'm not damaged."

He lets out a sigh of relief and places his hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath and steady his nerves.

He swallows hard in an attempt to keep from throwing up.

"Good. I was worried when I saw... Let me give you a hand with that."

He kneels behind her, taking the needle and thread, and begins to sew the wounds that she's already cleaned.

"Thanks, John."

"What happened to you?"

"There were triple-eights at the dock."

"You're okay right?!"

"Yes, they weren't there for us. Derek took them all out with C-4."

"...Derek killed all of them?"

"Yes. He used the explosives like they were grenades."

"...Remind me to try that someday... How did you get these wounds?"

"I... Derek... he threw one of them too close-"

"WHAT?! I'LL KILL HIM!"

She believes him when he stands and begins running for the door of the shed.

Moving quickly, she grabs his right arm.

"John, stop it."

"Let me go!" he shouts.

"No, John. Calm down."

John reaches for his Glock with his left hand.

"The wall won't stop me!"

He knows that the thin walls of any house can't even stop handgun rounds. The bullets will rip through the few inches of wood like paper, only slowed and deflected slightly.

Having lived there for months, he knows the layout of the entire house.

As he pulls his Glock lefthanded, he forms a mental image of the inside of the house.

Imagining the location of his target, he begins to raising the weapon.

She snatches it from his grip at most a half second before he would have started emptying it into the living room.

'If it weren't for other wounds, John would have noticed my lip... Would I be able stop him from killing Derek if he knew that he'd hit me?'

"John, that blast saved my life. He even shouted as he threw it."

"That doesn't sound...why would he...?"

"I don't think that he knew I was a cyborg."

"He knows, Cameron."

"John... he killed some people."

"Who?"

"Port security. He shouted 'metal', and then he threw an explosive at them."

John just stares, mouth agape.

"You mean... like a flashback?"

"Yes I do."

He takes a deep breath, trying to think of his uncle's actions like he did with Cameron when she went bad.

'It wasn't his fault... he's... damaged. It isn't his fault... he didn't mean it... he's damaged.'

It wasn't as calming as it had been when applied to Cameron.

"I can't fix him." he says quietly, looking at the ground.

She wraps her arms around him.

"I know, John. I'm sorry."

With some confusion he searches her eyes for a few moments, concluding that she wasn't blaming herself.

"I can fix you, though." he says, tapping the side of her leg.

Disposing of the thread that had touched the ground, he continues sewing.

It takes a long time, but finally the flesh is put together as well as it can be and better than it has to be. The entire backs of her legs have been disinfected and bandaged.

When he stands, she turns and gives him a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, I'll be back to normal in just a few days."

He grins and raises an eyebrow.

"Better be, you haven't worn that denim miniskirt in a while."

They laugh.

John quickly stops as he sees the blood on her shirt.

"Cameron?"

"What's wrong?"

"The other wounds... on your chest and back."

"I've taken care of the gunshot wounds on my chest, but I'd appreciate some help with the cuts on my back."

She had told a half-truth. The wounds of advanced models like her and the less advanced T-888's don't scar. Bandaging or sewing a mere cut would only improve the healing time.

She just enjoyed having him take care of her, and knew that it made him feel helpful.

He is surprised when he sees the large cut that he'd made to expose and repair her armor. It looks weeks old, but checking his watch he realizes that it's been less than 12 hours since he sewed it closed.

After he finishes pulling out pieces of shrapnel- which she could have removed herself -he sews the larger wounds and bandages all of them.

"Cameron? I'm sorry, but I have to ask... Were you telling the truth when you said that you can't feel pain?"

"I said that I don't feel pain as you know it. I feel pain, but it causes me no _discomfort_. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I do... I'm guess that I'm getting tripped on the part where you call it 'pain'. I just care about you, and I'm trying to understand how you feel, even though I can't."

"Well, I'll never know what you feel, either."

"As far as I can tell, the only thing that you're missing out on is pain... and I'm happy for you."

She takes on a comforting expression and tone.

"John, it's okay. Go ahead."

"...What?"

"I know what you want to ask next."

He laughs.

"Then maybe you can tell me, 'cause I sure don't."

"You want to know if I can feel what you feel."

His expression turns serious.

"Cam, you already told me that you can."

"You doubted my honesty about taste and pain."

"That's not fair. We already talked about the taste thing. Just now, I asked you about pain because it hurts me just to see you like this."

She tilts her head.

"It hurts you to-"

He interrupts, his voice becoming more unsteady and his eyes beginning to water as he continues.

"To see you like this! If that happened to... the pain alone could kill me. I just can't... I can't handle the thought of you being in so much pain. Any pain... and my mind keeps telling me that you are."

She places her hand on his shoulder.

"I understand, John."

"No you don't. The nightmares... they don't stop when I wake up anymore... All day I wonder if you'll still be with me tomorrow."

"John, I love you. I'll never leave you."

"I know, but it's not up to you. I can't go anywhere without a weapon anymore... I'm afraid you'll be attacked. I can't stop worrying that your chip is... I'm sorry, Cameron."

"If it makes you feel any better, I worry about you too."

He laughs through his tears.

"No, the thought of you suffering doesn't make me feel better."

"John, I'm tough. I know how I look right now, but really, I'm 100%."

"Lying isn't going to make me feel better, either. I'm not stupid. I know that healing must take... some extra power or something. It does for me."

"Well... I do need more materials to complete the repairs to my biol- I mean, to heal."

John's expression switches to terror in an instant.

"I'll get you whatever you need! Anything! Don't worry, just tell me where to find it!"

She smiles.

"I require a minimum of one, and a maximum of three..." she trails off for a moment.

"What do you need?! I'll get it for you! I promise!"

She continues.

"...scoops of ice cream."

John laughs.

"Okay, Cam. Just... don't scare me like that."

Scene 183: Along For The Ride

8:16am The park

It was nearly 8 o'clock by the time that John and Cameron had finished with her injuries and gotten cleaned up.

They once again sit, ice cream in hand, at the bench where Derek had sat with John on his birthday, and where Derek had misheard John and Cameron.

"John, why do you like it here so much?"

He looks surprised at the question.

"I like being with you."

She frowns.

"I know, but what's so special about this park? The other one is where we-"

He puts his hand over mouth and starts looking around.

He was half expecting his uncle or mother to be eavesdropping. Seeing no one, he slides closer to her and keeps his voice down.

"On my birthday, Derek brought me here. I saw Kyle for the first time."

She tilts her head.

"I don't understand."

He watches his ice cream melt for a moment, as if expecting it to tell him what to say.

"In twenty years, I'm going to send Kyle Reese back to protect my mother before I was born."

She doesn't say anything.

"Kyle is my father, Cameron."

"That's why you told me so little about him? You were afraid that Skynet would try to kill him?"

He shakes his head.

"No, that's why I don't tell people that he's my father. I say so little about him because I don't know anything about him. I never met him."

She places a hand on his shoulder.

"You will."

"It's not the same. I'll never have a father. Uncle Bob was the closest thing I ever had to one, and I only knew him for a little while. Charley was a nice guy. He tried to be like a father to me- and he was. But I wasn't a little kid anymore. I just... I'll never get a piggyback ride, or play catch, or whatever kids are supposed to do with their fathers."

"I'm sorry, John. I don't know how to cheer you up."

He smiles at her.

"Cameron, having you around cheers me up."

She smiles back, then looks perplexed and tilts her head.

"John, what's a 'piggyback ride'?"

"It's when someone-" he realizes what will happen if he tells her, and laughs "No way, Cam. I'm not telling you."

She looks around the park, identifying a man in his mid-thirties with a four year old boy.

She stands up and starts walking over to them.

"Cameron? Where are you going?"

He doesn't have to have cybernetic hearing to know what she's asking.

He doesn't need cybernetic eyes to see the man pick up the child on his back.

She starts coming toward him with a determined stride and a smile on her face.

"No Cameron! No!"

They both discard their ice cream and start laughing as he gets up and tries to keep the picnic table between them.

"You can't escape, John"

She starts moving around the table.

He moves, trying to match her speed.

"Cameron, stop it."

She fakes to one side, then lunges as he falls for it.

He barely manages to dodge her.

"Give up, there's nowhere to run."

She picks up the table with one hand and moves it aside, before charging forward.

"That's not fair!"

He tries to back away, but he's laughing too hard to control his legs and falls.

She doesn't expect it, and falls on top of him laughing.

After what seems like minutes, John calms down enough to speak.

"Cameron, a piggyback ride isn't something that _you're_ supposed to give _me_. If one of us gets one, it's supposed to be you."

"Why?"

He seems surprised that she'd ask.

"Well... because you're the girl."

She tilts her head.

"But I'm stronger than you are."

"Yeah... well... um... that's not normal."

"Well John, you're forgetting something."

"What's that?"

"I'm not just stronger than you are- I'm a _lot_ stronger than you are."

Standing, she picks him up at the same time.

"No! Put me down!"

She places him on her back as though he weighs nothing and begins carrying him.

"Cameron, this isn't fun! It's embarassing!"

She laughs.

"Well _I'm_ having fun, so I guess that you're just along for the ride."

Scene 184: Good to Have You Back

10:24am 'Baum' residence - Kitchen

Cameron and John have just reached the door. They each have an arm around the other, and are laughing uncontrollably about something.

Sarah stands near the freezer.

"No, Cameron that's not-"

Sarah shouts.

"John! Get in here right now!"

The laughter stops and John whispers to Cameron to stay out of whatever happens between him and his mother.

John reaches Sarah in the kitchen.

"What?"

"'What'?! What do you mean 'what'?!"

She opens the freezer before continuing.

"How do you explain this?!"

"The T-880-"

"Oh, so it's his fault? I should talk to him?"

"Mom-"

"Fine, where is he? I'll go talk to him."

"No, you can't-"

"You don't tell me what I can and can not do."

"Well you can't talk to-"

*smack*

"You don't tell me what I can and can not do! Where is he?"

"He's dead!"

Her mouth falls open when she realizes what she's done.

"I'm sorry, John. I didn't know."

"I know that."

He smiles as he rubs the welt on his face and continues.

"It's good to have you back."

She chuckles and hugs him, stroking the back of his head.

"I'm glad to see that you're okay, too."

She continues.

"I know how you feel about these things."

He pushes away enough to look her in the eye.

"I don't have any feelings for these things." he says, pointing at the freezer before continuing.

"But if you care about me, you'll stop calling Cameron and uncle Bob 'things'."

"John, I wasn't talking about them. You can't keep these around. They're dangerous."

"That's why I want them on my side."

"You don't know what you're doing. What if they try to kill you?"

"You make it sound like I'm just going to activate one and see what happens. I've got 8 chips to practice on. Then there's the fact that triple-eights are different sizes, so it's going to take a long time to find the parts to fix just one. It will take a lot of work, too."

She shakes her head.

"We're not supposed to be keeping these things, we're supposed to be destroying them."

"What if we can't stop Judgment Day? I don't want to be responsible for any more deaths than I already am."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"We can fight Skynet with its own weapons. We can build an army. Right here."

"John, you're not a general, yet."

"Well, if you want to be good at anything, you have to practice every day."

"You won't be good at anything when you turn one on and it kills you."

"That won't happen. I won't activate one until I'm sure it's safe."

"John, we're going to destroy them. That's final."

"T-800, TOK-715, T-880... are you seeing a pattern here?"

"Don't be snotty with me."

"'General Connor' trusts machines, why can't you?"

"Because you don't understand what they are."

"They've been designed to kill people, and each has been programmed to kill John Connor."

"John, I don't want to have to burn them in the house. Get Cameron in here."

"No. I'm doing this. I'm going to start reprogramming."

"Not while I'm around, you're not."

"Mom, look at what's happened here. You've been stabbed, I've been shot, Derek's been messed up somehow, and Cameron is fine. Terminators can do our jobs better than we can."

She looks at him incredulously.

"You think that they're better than we are?"

"That's funny... I thought I was saying that they're harder to kill."

"You do not take that tone with me!"

"I just did."

*smack*

"Mom, I've been shot, I've killed a triple-eight, Riley, and a couple of grays. Slapping me isn't going to-"

He's interrupted by her fist.

"What about that?!"

He looks at her with genuine concern for her health.

"I don't want you hurting yourself. You shouldn't even be walking yet."

She's surprised that her son isn't fazed by being punched in the face. He wasn't the same John he had been before the fight with the T-1001.

"I'm fine."

"You're not 'fine'! When the doctor stapled your lungs back together, he had to crack open your fuckin' ribcage!"

*smack*

"You watch your mouth!"

"It's still good to have you back."

Scene 185: Deadline

10:28am 'Baum' residence - Living room

Derek has left.

John and Sarah finish their fight in the kitchen, she leaves to take a shower and get some more rest.

John finds Cameron sitting on the couch, looking at the floor.

"Are you all right?"

"No, I'm not."

He kneels in front of her, intercepting her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"She's right."

"About what?"

"One of the T-888's might kill you."

John takes her hands in his own.

"Cameron, look at me. That's not going to happen."

"John, you're not ready for this."

He looks hurt, weakened.

"You don't believe in me?"

"John, you're just not ready."

"You thought it was a good idea before. What's changed?"

"The T-880 could have protected you if one of them went bad. I'm not sure that I can."

"Cameron, I don't need you to protect me. I need you with me."

"I'll always be with you. I know what you meant by that."

He smiles.

"I know you do."

"I don't want you to die, John. Don't do this." she pleads.

"Cameron, if we have triple-eights to protect us-"

"Is that why you're doing this? To protect me?"

John looks away.

"Is that why, John?"

"No."

"You're lying. I don't want you to lie to me anymore."

"Cameron, I can't protect you."

"You have! Twice!"

He shakes his head.

"The only reason that you need protection is because of me. You'll never be safe. Skynet will keep coming until they kill me and you'll keep standing between it and me."

"I told you that I wouldn't get myself killed! I promised!"

"And I told you that you couldn't keep it, because I can't keep a promise like that."

"John, we don't need the triple-eights. We'll get some better weapons, we'll fight smarter, we'll be okay."

"Please listen to me. We need this. I won't let Skynet take you away from me."

"We're together now."

"Cameron, we can't do anything without looking over our shoulders. Wondering if that face in the crowd is another machine."

"You said that I'm all you need... I'm with you..."

"I need to be sure that you always will be. I can only do that by taking the fight to Skynet. I can't do that without the triple-eights."

"John, we just need to find the Turk. We don't need to fight a war."

He thinks for a moment.

"...One month."

"One month?"

"In one month, if we haven't made _real_ progress with the Turk... I'm going to start activating these machines, and letting them fix themselves."

Scene 186: Blinded by Faith

12:00pm ZieraCorp Headquarters - Catherine Weaver's office

Weaver sits at her desk. Savannah is watching something on a laptop.

James Ellison has just stepped off of the elevator.

Weaver smiles at the sight of him.

"Mr. Ellison."

She motions to chair opposite the desk from her own and he sits.

"Thank you, Ms. Weaver."

"Punctual as always."

He smiles.

"Are you sure you don't mean 'predictable'?"

Weaver's expression becomes serious.

"If that were the case, then I would have said it."

His smile vanishes.

'I didn't think she was this touchy.'

"Of course, Ms. Weaver."

She smiles faintly.

"Now then, what do you have for me today?"

He sets a news paper and a folder onto her desk.

"A cargo ship was attacked. Several of those things may have been involved."

He opens the folder, and spreads out the pictures inside. Some have clear views of T-888 parts.

"My, this is interesting."

"An officer with port security claimed to have been attacked by a tall man wearing sunglasses, even though it was in the middle of the night. Another was found atop a stack of cargo containers, but refused to divulge how he came to be there."

Weaver looks from the pictures to Ellison.

"What were they after?"

"They destroyed three containers... There's no record of what was in them."

Weaver gives him a knowing look.

"Is that so, Mr. Ellison?"

He furrows his brow.

'She's always ahead of me.'

"You already knew?"

She stands and moves to a filing cabinet. After reaching into a drawer, she returns and stands in front of him.

"One of the containers that was destroyed contained these."

She holds out what appears to be a terminator chip.

"My God, is this what I think it is?"

Weaver tilts her head.

"I don't know. What do you think it is?"

He seems surprised by the question.

"I think it came from one of those things."

She smiles.

"No, Mr. Ellison, my company was procuring them from a foreign manufacturer."

'But this looks just like the one that Sarah smashed.'

"What's it for?"

"Why, it's for John Henry."

Ellison looks at her in surprise.

"You mean you're going to activate that thing with John Henry inside it?"

She looks disappointed in him.

"No, Mr. Ellison. I had intended to connect him to hundreds of them. This technology is based on the robots you're chasing. They would have allowed John Henry to grow much faster."

Ellison is incredulous.

"I can barely keep up with him now because he loses interest so quickly. How would I be able to teach him anything if he were even faster?"

"If he were as fast as I'd intended to make him, he would have learned everything that he needed for the future in just a few moments alone with you."

'What does that mean?'

"I can't teach anything in just a few seconds."

"You're human. He needs to learn what humans represent."

'You're human, too.'

"What do we represent?"

She smiles.

"A challenge, Mr. Ellison."

He furrows his brow.

"'A challenge'?"

She walks to the window and stares at the street far below.

"Humans have always been a mystery to him. As a whole, they are predictable. However, certain individuals are entirely _un_predictable. It would be a great help to us if he were to learn more about them."

"Don't you mean 'learn more about us'?"

She looks over her shoulder at him and smiles.

"Of course."

His gaze returns to the chip in his hand.

"Why would those things want to stop you from getting these?"

"They mustn't want me to succeed."

"Succeed at what? I'm teaching John Henry the word of God. I don't see how that's a threat to them."

"John Henry is going to change the world."

"How?"

"That depends on if you're man or machine."

'If machines are attacking ZieraCorp's interests, I _must_ be on the right side...'

Scene 187: A Waking Nightmare

12:00pm Pizza Hut

Cameron and John sit at a booth with a pepperoni pizza between them.

"John, can I ask you something?"

"You don't need to ask."

Cameron stares at her plate in silence for several seconds before John speaks up.

"Cameron, I meant that you didn't need to ask for permission. You can ask me anything, at any time."

"Oh, thank you for explaining. John... you know that we can't have children, right?"

John chokes on a bite of pizza and Cameron kicks him in the solar plexis with the toe of her shoe as an impromptu Heimlich maneuver.

After he finishes coughing, he answers.

"I figured that one out, Cameron."

She looks down.

"Oh."

He lowers his head, trying to make eye contact.

"Is that a problem for you?"

She looks up at him.

"Is it for you?"

"No."

"Then it isn't for me, either."

"Did you... just say that you don't care about having kids... but that you would anyway if I wanted them?"

"Of course."

"...That's wrong, Cam."

She tilts her head.

"I don't understand."

He covers his face with his hands for a moment.

"Cameron, I told you this morning about not having a father. You know how much that bothers me, don't you?"

"Yes."

"If you have children you don't care about, it's worse for them than not having a parent. It's cruel, Cameron."

"I didn't mean to be cruel."

"I know."

He reaches for her hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb.

"Cam, in 2027, did John teach you a lot? Like how to do human stuff, and help you understand things?"

"I already told that he did."

"What if he hadn't? What if he hadn't cared enough?"

"That's not possible."

"I know, but... having kids when you don't care about them is like if he hadn't cared about you. He would have reprogrammed you and then ignored you."

"I wouldn't ignore them."

"You mean that you would pretend to care?"

"If you care about them, then that makes them important to me."

"That isn't enough. Kids need love. They're good at picking up on things, too. I don't believe that a child who grew up around you would be fooled by your pretending."

She looks down again.

"I didn't mean to upset you."

"What? You didn't upset me."

She looks at his hand on hers.

"I can feel your heart rate and blood pressure."

He gives her a reassuring smile.

"Cam, I've missed out on a lot of things. If we avoided subjects that brought up painful memories, grief, or regret, then we'd never speak again."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm not. I wish that I could have had a normal life. But between that and you? I choose you."

She senses no deception.

"You're telling the truth."

He looks offended.

"Did you need to scan me to know that?"

She smiles.

"No, I didn't need to."

"I have a question about your anatomy, though."

"What is it?"

"How much do you need to eat?"

"Only enough to support my biological covering, though I can store excess nutrients."

"In fat?"

"No. My body maintains the same amount of adipose tissue. It makes it easier to blend in. After long periods without sustenance, I will still look the same."

"Like travelling the wasteland searching for Resistance bases?"

"Yes. Increased adiposity would also be harmful to an infiltrator's mission when replacement of a specific person is required."

"Sooo... unless you starve, you'll always look exactly the same?"

"Yes."

"You don't age, either?"

"No."

"Wow! Do you know how many girls would want to be you?"

She frowns.

"John, if we beat Skynet, we'll spend the rest of _your_ life together. Unless I am killed, I will outlive you. That's not something that I look forward to. You're not the only one with nightmares."

"You can dream?!"

She looks down, shaking her head.

"No, John. My chip doesn't produce meaningless information unless the voltage is too high or too low. You told me that your nightmares don't stop when you're awake."

Tears begin to gather in her eyes.

"John, I'm always awake."

He moves to her side of the table and puts his arms around her.

"I'm sorry. I was being selfish again. I was so happy to know that I wouldn't outlive you, that I forgot what that meant for you."

"I understand."

He kisses the side of her head.

"I'll try harder... to not be so selfish."

"I'm always running scenario analyses. Some of them are intended to estimate your life expectancy. No matter how long you live, I always live longer."

"I'm sorry. I'm here with you now, though."

"That doesn't change anything. I'm a terminator. My HUD shows me things that I don't want to see. Anything relevant. I wish you to live. As a result, my HUD shows me potential threats to your life."

"What do you mean?"

"Right now it's telling me that there is a 97% chance you would die if an M67 fragmentation grenade were thrown into this booth."

"Cameron, what are the odds that something like that would really happen?"

"Zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, ze-"

"All right, then it's not a problem. Don't worry about it."

"It even predicts the most likely location of the grenade to come to rest, then it predicts the shrapnel patterns, and the most likely injury locations."

"That isn't going to happen, stop worrying about it."

"I don't wish you injured. In the 3% of scenarios where you survive the blast, it's telling me what extremities will need to be amputated, where I'll need to apply pressure, how long I'll have to stop the bleeding before you die, the severity of brain damage, organ damage-"

"It isn't going to happen, don't do this to yourself."

"I can't turn it off!" she screams with tears in her eyes.

He realizes that she has been suffering more than he has.

"I didn't know, Cameron. I didn't know. Is there any way to stop it? Some way to disable it? Anywhere we can go where you it doesn't do this?"

She just cries.

"Cameron, there must be some way to stop this. Do you know anything else?"

She struggles to speak through the tears.

"...No..."

"We're going home, Cameron. I'm going to hook up a triple-eight chip and I'm going to try to shut off its HUD."

She continues crying.

"Cam, I won't let you keep seeing these things."

Scene 188: Cry Wolf

12:31pm 'Baum' residence - John's room

Cameron and John have just entered.

John doesn't know why this has never come up, and worries that it's related to the damage to her chip.

"Cameron, will it stop if you go into standby?"

She hasn't stopped sobbing since leaving the restaraunt.

"...Yes."

He leads her to his bed and helps her onto it.

"Go into standby. I promise, I won't leave this room until these images are gone."

"Okay."

He kisses her briefly then smiles.

"Good night, Cam."

"I love you, John"

"I love you."

As she shuts down, the last thing she sees are his tears falling toward her.

He wipes his eyes.

'I don't have time to cry.'

He opens a drawer and retrieves the box of eight T-888 chips and his toolbox.

Using his tools, he takes apart his laptop and disconnects the wireless LAN card and sets it aside before putting the laptop together again.

He hooks up all of the necessary equipment, plugs in one of the chips, and inserts the disc from his future self.

Searching the disc for any information regarding a terminator's HUD, he finds something.

'Modifying visual display?'

Opening the file, he sees pages and pages of information.

'This is it!'

The instructions are explicite, but out of order and cover many different features.

Following them with the T-888 chip, he then gives it 7.5 volts and allows it to take over his laptop.

When it takes over his webcam, he sees himself on the screen, but no HUD or information regarding his termination is displayed.

He pulls the chip.

Realizing how much he's sweating, he opens the window and takes a moment to calm himself.

Sitting beside Cameron, he smiles at how peaceful she looks.

After a few minutes, he gets up the nerve to wake her.

Gently, he lifts her onto his lap and begins to stroke her hair.

After 15 seconds, she wakes up.

John is shaking slightly.

"Cameron, I found it..."

"Then what's wrong?"

"I'm just scared."

"I trust you, John."

"I don't."

"Don't worry. I trust you."

Tears fill his eyes.

"I'm going to have to remove your chip."

"It's okay, John."

He kisses her.

"No, it isn't."

Neither of them say a word.

Taking out the switchblade, he cuts into her scalp.

Peeling it back, he removes the port cover.

He takes the pliers and twists the chip a half turn.

"I love you, Cameron."

He pulls her chip and breaks down sobbing.

When he regains his composure, he connects her to his laptop.

'I won't screw this up.'

'I can't screw this up.'

He searches for the HUD's values in Cameron, but they aren't in the same place.

Accessing the disc again, he finds nothing specific to Cameron's HUD.

Turning to the chip.

"I'm sorry. I don't know if I can help you."

He begins searching her for the files that he needs to modify.

He finds one, but it's different.

'I can do this.'

He alters the values, and writes down what he's changed, hoping that he can undo the damage if he's wrong.

"Cameron, you'll be okay."

He finds another.

Again, he writes down what he changes.

"Almost done, Cam."

Finally, he finds the last one.

"I've got it!"

He writes down the changes, then gives her chip 7.5 volts of power.

He puts on his headphones, double checking that his microphone and webcam are plugged in.

After a few seconds, the screen shows his image.

"Can you hear me?"

Through the headphones, he can hear a voice, but it's not quite Cameron's.

"Yes."

"Is it you? Are you still Cameron?"

He holds his breath.

"Yes."

He lets out a sigh of relief.

"What about your HUD, I'm not seeing it on the screen."

"It's gone."

'I did it!'

"Is there anything wrong?"

There's a pause.

"Where's John?"

When she had dug the bullet out of his chest, it hadn't felt this bad.

"Cam... it's me..."

"Who are you? I've never seen you before."

He can't breath. His lungs expel air faster than he can inhale it.

"You don't recognize me?"

"No."

Tears stream down his face.

"It's me... John... I shut off your HUD..."

"John?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"I recognize your voice, but not your face."

The tears slow, but his chest feels no better.

"What did I do wrong?"

"My facial recognition system is offline. I'm running a diagnostic, but I can't see the results. My targetting reticle is also offline."

"You mean that every problem is HUD related? There's nothing else wrong that you know of?"

"Without my diagnostic, I can't be certain."

"Cameron?"

"Yes............ John?"

"I'm going to reduce your voltage, then I'm going to undo some of the changes and start you back up."

"Okay."

"You'll be fine. I just need to figure out what files I need to change."

He reduces the voltage, and starts undoing the changes made to the third file.

Turning her back on, he sees her HUD for the first time.

"Can you recognize my face?"

"Yes, John."

He smiles.

"What about everything else? Your diagnostic? Your crosshairs?"

"No. Only part of my HUD has returned."

"Okay, but before I change anything... What do _you_ want? With your systems, is there anything that you want turned off?"

"I don't know. Not having my HUD was... uncomfortable."

"Then I'll leave everything on that I can. I'm going to reduce the power again."

"John, I'm sorry that I didn't recognize you before."

"That's not your fault."

He reduces the power and resets the values on the second file.

Starting her up, he sees the images she'd talked about.

Lines were being superimposed on her HUD showing likely trajectories for sniper fire, estimating the most likely angle and point of impact.

Text continuously scrolls across the screen listing the predicted damage to his body from each type of round at each potential location.

Necessary medical treatments and his likelihood of survival were also displayed.

His headphones pop in his ears.

"What was that Cameron?"

"Get down John!"

"No, it's okay. I'm fine. I'm going to reduce your power. I found the file."

"Down! Down now!"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you on like this."

The last thing that she sees is his blood flying toward the camera.

Scene 189: Mother Bear

1:16pm 'Baum' residence - Sarah's room

Sarah lays on her bed, resisting the urge to get up and do something.

She doesn't want to slow her healing. She has to be healthy for John.

'I can't protect him like this.'

She looks over at the bottle of sleeping pills.

'All right, fine.'

She reaches for the bottle and pours them into her hand, dumping all but one back into the bottle.

'Down the hatch.'

Swallowing the pill, she relaxes.

'I wish that these things worked faster.'

*CRACK*

"JOHN?!"

She jumps to her feet and dashes to John's room.

As she opens the door, she sees him dragging himself to the desk, trying to reach Cameron's chip.

"JOHN!"

She sees a figure outside the window.

"Get down!"

She forces him to the floor.

"No! Cameron! I need to get-"

"Stay down!"

"Let go of me! Her chip I have to-"

Rounds rip throught the wall destroying the laptop.

Sarah won't let him up, but he can reach the cords, and pulls them until Cameron's chip falls.

He places his body under it, saving it from the floor, then unplugs her from the equipment.

"Stay down!"

Sarah screams as he tries to reach Cameron's body.

She won't let him get to her, so he reaches for the bed and pulls on the blankets, trying to pull her to edge and onto the floor.

It's no use.

The blankets are tucked under the matress and his injuries combined with her weight make it too much for him.

There's just too much pain, and he's lost too much blood.

"Let me go! I have to get to Cameron!"

"No, stay down!"

'The notes!'

He reaches for the side of the desk and is just barely able to reach the paper.

Placing it into his pocket, he begins struggling with his mother again.

"I have to help her!"

"John, wait until the shooting stops!"

'I can't, I don't know how bad I'm hit... I'm sorry, mom.'

He elbows her in the chest, knowing about her injuries.

When she lets go, he leaps onto the bed.

As rounds rip through the wall, he inserts her chip and replaces the port cover, before rolling off of the bed and taking her with him.

The fall is agonizing, and Cameron's limp body landing on his chest in ten times more so.

"Cameron?! Cameron?!"

In a situation like this, time doesn't seem to pass normally.

What seems like minutes of shaking her is only a few seconds.

He moves her off of his wounded body and crawls toward his M4.

His mother beats him to it, and blindly fires several rounds through the window.

"Stay down, John!"

More sniper fire rips through the wall.

Sarah knows where the assailant is, but can't get into a firing position without taking fire herself.

"Get out, John! Get out of here!"

John tries to drag Cameron, but she wakes up. She doesn't need take in her surroundings. She knows the room, and she saw the round that hit John.

Grabbing him, she leaps toward the wall separating her from the hallway and twists her body midair to put herself between John and the wall.

Smashing through, she hits the hallway wall, and starts carrying John downstairs.

She sees figures- humans -coming in through the door and windows. She drops John.

"I won't let anything happen to you!"

With rage in her eyes, she tops 22mph as she charges the nearest gray.

Just before she can strike, his head explodes.

Then she sees another's clothing pucker as he's riddled with bullets.

"GET MY SON OUT OF HERE!"

She doesn't need to look to know that Sarah is at the top of the stairs. She can't believe that Sarah is fighting in her condition.

She also doesn't need to look to know that Sarah has no spare magazines on her person.

'John would never forgive me...'

Cameron grabs a shotgun from the nearest body and fires it at the nearest gray.

"Get John out of here!" Sarah screams.

Cameron's rounds rip through flesh and bone. Her crosshairs are turned off, but they aren't necessary for such short ranges.

The gray's shoulder is obliterated, and the bone fragments combine with the misshapen buckshot pierce anothers chest.

Sarah fires into another gray as he tries to run through the door.

Her experience tells her that she can't have more than 5 to 8 rounds left, though she hasn't counted.

She thumbs the selector to single, hoping to make them count.

They do.

She fires two rounds into the head of one gray, and immediately puts one into each the neck and chin of a second gray.

Her last three rounds slam into the sternum of a third.

Sarah feels that there is an extra pound of weight at the front of the weapon.

'John left the M203 loaded.'

"Cameron! Cover John!"  
Cameron turns from her own killing spree and sees Sarah closing a finger over the trigger of the M203.

She dives on top of John, hoping that the HE grenade detonates far enough from them that the shock generated by it doesn't kill John.

'I love you John.' Cameron thinks.

The grenade flies and hits the wall behind three grays, killing them instantly.

The blast throws wood splinters and siding into several unseen grays who were outside.

Cameron checks John for injuries, and finds no new ones.

Picking him up with one hand and throwing him onto her shoulder, she picks up an MP5 with the other.

"Sarah! Come on!"

She charges out the door, and fires into the nearest gray that she sees. The 9mm rounds rip through the mans chest just below the neck.

Turning, she sees another gray and fires. The rounds are wild, but she pulls the weapon onto the target and the man goes down from rounds through the heart and lungs.

Sarah comes out the door, having taken the time to retrieve her shotgun and a bag of guns and ammunition from the couch.

She fires into a gray as Cameron puts John into the backseat of the Dodge- the only vehicle that she's carrying the keys to.

Cameron fires the remaining rounds at the grays and Sarah sprays the crowd with buckshot.

Cameron gets into the drivers seat with her empty weapon as Sarah climbs into the backseat directly behind her.

Sarah sits on John, both to cover his body with her own, and because she couldn't risk running to the other side of the vehicle.

Cameron puts her foot on the gas, and swerves around several grays. It would be hard to disappear with blood covering a smashed grill.

'Eight-eighty my friend, this one's for you.'

She opens her door taking down two grays and leaving them with injuries that they'll be lucky to survive.

Once on the street, she quickly reaches the vehicle's top speed and leaves the 'Baum' residence and the grays far behind.

Scene 190: Blame Game

1:25pm On the road - Dodge pickup

Cameron drives, trying to force aside her emotions well enough to keep from crashing the truck. Every time she glances back at John, her HUD flashes 'Expiration Imminent'.

John lays in the backseat, flirting with unconsciousness and death.

Sarah is trying to stop the bleeding, but seems to have difficulty concentrating.

Sarah's tears cover her face.

"John, sweety, mommy's here."

He grabs her hand and tries to squeeze it to reassure her, but his strength is fading.

"Mom... is Cameron..."

"I'm here, John. I'm fine." her voice is no steadier than Sarah's.

John is barely audible.

"I'm sorry that I... couldn't fix you... I promised..."

"Don't say that! You will! You won't leave me!"

"I'm... trying not to... but..."

Sarah interrupts.

"John, you can't die! They would have sent someone back to help you!"

"You know that... isn't true..."

"My little boy isn't going anywhere! Do you hear me!"

"It doesn't hurt... anymore..."

"He's going into shock." Cameron says.

"I know that!"

"Cam...?"

"I'm right here."

"I can't reach... in my pocket... how to make it stop... I love......"

He slips into unconsciousness.

Sarah starts to scream at him, shaking him and crying.

"John! John! Don't do this to me! Wake up! John, open your eyes!"

When he doesn't respond, she turns to Cameron.

"What were you doing?! You're supposed to be protecting him!"

"He was helping me!"

"Why?! What the hell do you need?!"

"John, he was trying to stop-"

"Well now his heart has stopped! Are you happy yet?! First you took him away then you killed him!"

Cameron tries to tell her that his heart is just beating slowly, but she can't speak.

The road blurs and she has to switch to infrared in order to see through her tears.

Her chip registers pain signals from the tissue on her hands, but she further tightens her grip on the wheel.

'You're not leaving me this easily.'

***************************************************************************************


	10. Scenes 191 to 200

**Predaking50ae Scenes 191-200**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 191: Old Friend

1:33pm Dilapidated one story building - Outside

The truck comes to a stop on the front lawn of the 'doctor's office'.

Cameron's attempt to break the landspeed record has paid off.

John is still alive.

Sarah's concentration had been affected by the sleeping pill, but she was able to fight the effects well enough to keep John alive.

Cameron leaps from the truck and opens the door to the backseat.

She lifts a screaming and kicking Sarah out and sets her aside, then grabs John and sprints to the door.

"What are you doing?! We need to get him to a hospital!"

Sarah hadn't been conscious when she was taken to or from the building.

"This is where Derek brought you!"

Her HUD tells her that John is still alive, but it continuously estimates his probability of survival. The highest it has given her is 17%. She does her best to ignore it.

She kicks open the door, and sees the unnamed doctor treating the victim of a gunshot wound to the leg.

The man does his best to stand and move aside, allowing her access to the operating table.

Cameron places John on the operating table.

"Get out of here, now!" she orders the wounded man.

"Not a chance! Don't waste time with an appraisal, just get to work!" the man says.

The doctor shrugs and changes his gloves, before looking over the new arrival.

"It may have struck the heart. If it did, I can't help him."

"If you need a donor-" the man starts.

"Does it look like I'm setup to perform transplants, idiot?! If you want to help, then shut up!"

Sarah staggers in and orders the wounded man to leave.

"Not even for you." he says, flashing a barcode tattoo.

"Resistance? Who are you?"

"I'm nobody. Just doing my job."

Sarah looks ready to pass out, and the man helps her into a chair.

"I guess that the doc fixed you up pretty well, huh?"

"Yeah..."

Cameron is too focused on John and his treatment to listen to the conversation going on behind her.

The doctor cuts away John's shirt, and sees a Glock 17. Using his index finger and thumb, he picks it up by the receiver as though it were something disgusting.

"I don't want this thing on my table." Cameron takes it and puts it in the back of her pants.

The doctor keeps his voice down.

"That man, he made such a fuss over such a minor wound."

"I don't care about him. Just fix John."

"What about you?"

She notices for the first time that she's been shot several times.

"I'm fine, help John."

He watches how slowly the blood runs from her wounds.

"Whatever. 'AB' negative?"

"Yes."

"First fridge, second shelf. I need four units of 'A' or 'B' negative."

Scene 192: Heroine Addiction

2:11pm 'Doctor's office'

Sarah finally lost her battle with the sleep aid a few minutes ago.

The injured man had then limped outside.

Cameron's HUD tells her that John is now 79% likely to survive.

Ordinarily, probabilities above 60% are reassuring, but with John even 100% leaves her worrying what the margin for error might be.

As she addresses the doctor, Cameron doesn't take her eyes off of John.

"Is he going to be okay?"

The doctor removes his gloves.

"The bullet grazed the brachiocephalic artery. It didn't sever or puncture it, but it was weakened. He may develop an aneurism if his blood pressure is allowed to remain too high. He'll need morphine for the pain anyway, and that'll keep it down. As soon as he can handle it, you'll need to put him on something weaker... Codeine, Vicodin, Oxycodone, whatever you have access to. Then ween him off of that as quickly as you can."

Cameron tilts her head at the doctor who had been so heartless when John had come for his mother.

"I'd... rather not see a kid this young become a junkie."  
He smiles slightly, not looking at John, but looking past him. Regret fills his eyes as he absent mindedly runs his thumb over a wedding band that's on the wrong finger.

Snapping himself out of it, he turns to Cameron.

"Well, what about you? Why aren't your wounds bleeding like they should? What kind of hemostat works this well?"

"I-" Cameron starts.

*clink* *clink* *clink*

Cameron takes rounds in the back.

She covers John with her body as the doctor is torn to pieces by automatic fire.

When she realizes that the shooting isn't going to stop, she carries John over to his mother and lays him on the floor at her feet.

'You won't die today, John.'

Cameron knows that Sarah was feeling the effects of a sedative, and doesn't try to wake her.

'You won't lose your mother, either.'

Knowing that she can't carry John and Sarah at the same time without them getting shot, she takes the Glock 17 from her waistband. She can tell by the weight that it has a full magazine, plus one in the chamber.

She remembers John handing her one like it when he brought her back after she went bad.

She had thought at the time that John had either forgotten to unload it, or had known that she could weigh the weapon.

That was until Sarah had confronted her about her relationship with John.

During the argument that night, John had told his mother that he had expected Cameron to kill him, but that he would have preferred death to facing the future without her.

It was one of the many times that he'd made it absolutely clear that he needed her.

Cameron recalls the numerous times when John had told her that she was all he'd ever need.

That he couldn't live without her.

That he needed her.

'You need me. I won't leave you, John.'

She remembers the times when he had comforted her. Telling her that she was a person, that she would always be beautiful to him, that she was his armor, that she was the source of all of his strength, that she was the only reason he was still fighting.

As she stares at John, she remembers that this human has told two machines on two separate occasions that he wouldn't let them take her away from him. She remembers how he described his confrontation with the T-888. How he had stood his ground against it for her. For _her_.

'You need me... and I need you. I promised I wouldn't get myself killed. I don't know if I can keep that promise, but whatever condition I'm in... I'll come back to you... if only to say goodbye.'

With an incomplete HUD constantly flashing statistics about John's likelihood of survival, she smashes through the door.

Scene 193: Almost too Easy...

2:18pm Outside the 'doctor's office'

The front door has just splintered.

Cameron has plowed through it and has come face to face with a team of 16 grays.

4 of them were trying to reach the door when it had exploded and been replaced by a pissed off cyborg.

There are two black vans parked in the street, each providing cover for 4 grays

The remaining 4 grays are on the lawn using the Connors' Dodge for cover as they fire into the side of the building.

Even without her HUD partially offline, she is able to recognize the weapons and is surprised that the grays have come so poorly armed. More 9mm submachineguns and shotguns.

Cameron herself has only 18 rounds of 9mm Parabellum. Her targetting system is offline as well.

'Didn't they know that he'd be protected by a terminator?'

Her perplexity doesn't slow her down.

Identifying the four closest humans, she sees that they are close enough that she doesn't need waste ammunition.

"The T-880 knew how to deal with your kind!"

She grabs the nearest gray by his weapon arm, bending his forearm to a 90 degree angle, breaking the radius and ulna then jamming the broken ends into his own chest.

She casts his body aside and rushes to the next as the remaining grays open fire on her.

She ignores the impacts and bends the barrel of the next gray's shotgun as he fires. The chamber pressure rises beyond what the weapon can handle and it splits, sending shards of metal into his face.

Taking her hand off of the destroyed weapon, Cameron straightens her fingers and strikes him in the chest with the tips, piercing his entire body before using that hand to grab the gray standing behind him.

She pulls him closer and brings her other hand- in which she holds John's Glock -down onto his shoulder with crushing force. The impact alone is enough to stop his heart.

The fourth gray has started to run, and she fires 4 rounds into his back.

She picks up the third grays MP5 and fires on the four grays near the truck, managing to hit 1.

Cameron takes numerous rounds in the torso and limbs as the begins to charge at the 3 grays near the Dodge.

She runs a diagnostic as she moves, knowing that her HUD won't tell her on its own if she's been damaged.

It completes as she reaches the truck and tells her that she has only received damage to her biological covering.

As Cameron fires at the grays during her advance, they duck down against the side of the truck. It's a mistake.

Rather than simply firing her weapon through the truck's thin body, she improvises to save ammuntion and to reduce damage to the vehicle.

Placing her hands under the frame of the Dodge, she rolls it over, crushing all 3 of the grays beneath it.

Running around the side of it, she places a round from John's Glock into each of their heads.

She's hit in the shoulder and chest with buckshot.

"You should have brought better weapons!"

Opening fire with the last rounds of the MP5, she manages to walk the rounds across the side of the closest van, ripping into the bodies of 2 grays.

Discarding the empty weapon, she sprints toward the van and rams it with her shoulder, pushing it against the remaining 2 grays, and sending them to the pavement.

She immediately rolls it, then rolls it again, killing the 2 grays.

She's struck by 9mm rounds as the last 4 grays spread out, having witnessed the price of mistaking concealment for cover.

She feels rounds strike the side of her head and face, as she turns toward one of the grays and fires the remaining 11 rounds in the Glock, striking him only twice, but killing him.

'This is no good. I can't hit anything.'

Dashing toward his fallen body, she takes his Remington 870- it's a civilian model, rather than the police version she's used to -and shoulders it, receiving pain signals.

She runs a diagnostic, and finds that not only is the flesh damaged, but that ramming the van had caused minor damage to her shoulder joint.

She fires the shotgun once, twice, three times, striking a gray with the second and third blasts.

'I'm better with this.'

The remaining 2 grays fire at her with their MP5's, but seem to be aware of their uselessness.

Carefully, she fires the last round into one of them, then drops the empty weapon and reaches for the sidearm of the gray she'd taken the shotgun from. It's a SIG P229, 40S&W.

Walking steadily toward the remaining gray, Cameron stops.

She stands her ground while being fired at, and carefully aims.

This is the first time that she has ever used iron sights, but the inhuman precision of her motor skills allows her to place the weapon on target.

She fires 13 times until the slide locks back, and she watches the man crumple to the ground.

Placing the pistol in her waistband, she picks up the empty Remington, an MP5, and then recovers John's Glock intending to return it to him.

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 194: ...Attacking the Real Threat

2:27pm Outside the 'doctor's office'

Cameron has rolled the Dodge back onto its wheels and tossed the weapons into it.

She walks toward the destroyed front door of the building.

'I'm coming John. I'm fine.'

A black two door car screeches to a halt behind her.

Whirling around, she sees two men get out of the car.

"You won't take him!"

She dashes toward the nearest man as he raises a handgun and fires it into her chest.

Cameron strikes the man in the head with all of her might.

*clink*

'No! I'm sorry, John...'

She wrests the gun from the machine's hand and empties it into the T-888's face, destroying one of its eyes.

The machine grabs her arms and slams her against the car, then against the pavement before throwing her at the overturned van nearby.

The vehicle's body crumples from the impact and she struggles to free herself from the twisted metal.

Running a diagnostic as she frees herself, she is surprised to find that she has received no further endoskeletal damage.

The second machine arrives and Cameron ducks a punch, kicking the machine away.

The first machine grabs her right arm, she tries to overcome it, but the machine is stronger.

She remembers how humans fight one another, as well as the movements from her ballet practice.

Spinning 360 degrees her arm slips free of the machine's grip, and she strikes its chest with both palms, sending it through the air.

The second machine closes a hand over her neck from behind, but she twists free and throws a punch at its face.

The T-888 is inexperienced and less intelligent, but has the advantages of a HUD and greater strength.

It catches her arm and begins to beat her with its other hand.

She can't break free, and hears the metal of her forearm begin to groan.

She strikes the machine's grasping wrist twice dislocating it, and rips the hand off.

The first maching grabs her from behind and the second one picks up a sewer grate and begins to beat her with it.

She tries to block with both of her arms, but her left gives out after a few blows.

Lifting her legs, she is able to push the second machine away.

The first machine moves its grip to her left arm, having scanned her and found the damage to her shoulder.

It swings her around by it and smashes her against the pavement repeatedly.

'I'm going to shutdown if this keeps up.'

The machine tires of its current attack and throws her to the other side of the street.

The two triple-eights begin advancing together.

She looks around for a brief moment.

'I can do this. I'll see you soon, John.'

Cameron kicks the nearest telephone pole twice, severing it.

The cables stretch closer to the ground, running to the next she breaks it down as well, and the lines reach the ground.

Cameron's left arm won't respond, so she uses her right to rip the insulation from the line and turns to face the two T-888's

They stop and tilt their heads at her, then look at each other for a moment before continuing their advance.

She accesses memories of her time with John.

'I'll come back to you. I won't leave you. I promise.'

The machines grab her simultaneously and she clamps her right hand over the exposed wire, not knowing if the shock dampers given to her by the T-880 will protect her chip.

Cameron's sees mostly static as her vision scrambles, the two machines go limp after several seconds, but she maintains contact with them.

She runs a diagnostic while she electrocutes herself and the T-888's.

She finds that her left shoulder joint has been badly damaged and will no longer move.

'I knew that.'

Her right forearm has been crushed slightly, and functions only slightly better than any human's.

'I already knew that, too.'

Her biological covering has been damaged severely.

'...It'll heal.'

Her system is only receiving 13% more power than optimal.

'What? That can't be right.'

Cameron breaks contact with the triple-eights. If her diagnostic is correct, she could fry them without being 'damaged' herself. Doing so however, would literally cook her infiltration sheath.

She considers attempting to kick the machines onto the exposed cable, but her chronometer is among the many features of her HUD which isn't currently available and she's afraid to waste time.

'That won't work a second time.'

Cameron sprints at top speed toward the building, picking up the T-888's hand along the way. She needs the hyper-alloy since her supply was in the shed at the 'Baum' residence.

She lifts John with her right arm and carries him out to the truck, placing him in the backseat.

'I told you I'd come back to you.'

She returns moments later with Sarah and places her in the front seat.

Having only one hand and no idea how much of the T-888's 120 second reboot time has passed, she opens the bag that Sarah had taken from the house when they had fled.

She looks for the C-4, but it's gone.

She had intended to throw it at the T-888's.

Cameron abandons hope of destroying the machines.

Getting behind the wheel, she leaves the machines behind.

There was nothing useful to a one armed cyborg in the bag, but she had seen something that stunned her.

Something which Cameron had left on the couch before leaving with Derek for LA Harbor.

She looks over at Sarah, who sits unconscious beside her.

'My purple jacket... why would Sarah have saved it?'

'It was right beside the bag, but... I thought that Sarah hated me...'

She adjusts the rear view mirror until she can look between the front seats at John laying in the back.

She tries to ignore the new 87% probability of his survival. It simply isn't high enough to bring her comfort, even if it is an improvement.

Cameron tries to ignore the scenario analysis telling her John's chances of survival and the best course of action if she strikes an anti-tank mine with the Dodge.

'I came back to you, now you have to come back to me.'

Scene 195: Emotionally Drained

April 1st, 2008

5:34pm Strathmore, California - Small motel parking lot

150 miles NNW of LA.

The Dodge has been parked near a group of trees in order to cover the cab with shadows.

John is unconscious in the backseat.

Cameron has been trying to wake Sarah from her drug induced slumber.

"Sarah? Sarah?"

Cameron shakes her.

"Sarah?!"

She begins to wake.

After a moment, she remembers what has been happening.

"John?!"

Cameron answers with her now rarely used monotonous voice while staring straight ahead through the windshield.

"He's fine, Sarah. He's in the back."

Looking back she sees that her bandaged son appears to be sleeping. She calms quickly.

Turning to Cameron, she sees a lot of blood on her shirt and pants.

"What happened to you?"

"The man you were talking to was a gray. He was waiting there for us."

"One man did that to you?"

"No. Sixteen men and two triple-eights did this to me."

Sarah is speechless.

"Sarah? I'm going to need medical attention."

"Of course, but... you don't usually ask... why are you asking now?"

Cameron turns to Sarah to answer, but sees an expression of pure horror and looks away to hide her face.

"That's why."

"I'm sorry... I just haven't seen anything like that since..."

"Since uncle Bob?" she offers.

"Will you heal?"

Cameron looks down at her right hand. The flesh has been badly burned by the power line.

"With treatment. Otherwise, my tissue will begin to die."

Sarah sees the way that Cameron feels about her current appearance, and places a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll get some supplies."

"If you get a room for us, I can move John inside without being seen."

Sarah looks back at John.

"All right."

After several minutes, the room is unlocked and Cameron quickly moves John inside.

She lays John on the bed. Moving him in his condition with only one functional arm to support him was dangerous, but Sarah still didn't have the strength to carry him.

Cameron reaches out to touch John's face, but pulls back when she sees what her hand looks like.

"Sarah? I need tools. Pliers and a hand sledge should suffice. I can restore atleast some funtionality to my left arm."

"Is there anything else?"

"There are no other repairs that can be done here. This arm needs to be heated and bent." she holds up her slightly misshapen right forearm."

"Okay. Take good care of him until I get back."

"I will. Sarah? Thanks for saving my jacket."

"I didn't want to blow it up."

Cameron tilts her head.

"I don't understand."

"The house was full of triple-eight endoskeletons and chips. I found the chips in John's room and tossed them into the freezer with a brick of C-4."

"Thank you for explaining."

Sarah smiles.

"Thank you for saving my son."

Cameron turns to John.

"I hope that he doesn't wake up for a few days."

"Yeah, he'll be in a lot of pain."

Cameron looks at her hand.

"Yeah..."

Scene 196: Appearance is Everything

5:47pm Motel room - bathroom

Cameron has just finished removing her clothing.

A large piece of her thigh had come off with her pants.

Several chunks of flesh had fallen off of her shoulders and torso as she removed her shirt.

Looking into the mirror, the right side of her face appears as though nothing ever happened.

'John will still see me.'

She sees that the left side has little remaining. Her eye is intact, but from the curve of her jaw to her temple, the only tissue remaining hangs in strings. She can see her molars and the three pistons which actuate her mandible.

'Won't he?'

Turning her head, Cameron sees that her ear is intact, but a third of her scalp around it is gone.

'John said that he would still love me...'

Without her HUD for reassurance, she's left to wonder if she can recover.

She turns on the shower head and steps under the water.

Running her functional hand over her skin, the burned flesh begins to peel off.

Cameron stops to look at it for a moment.

Continuing, she tries to wash some of the dirt out of her wounds. There's more endoskeleton exposed than she had imagined.

She counts 14 places where she was hit with buckshot. Once the damaged tissue is cut away, each will leave a 3 inch diameter section of exposed endoskeleton.

Her right elbow is exposed, as are both shoulder joints.

She was still most concerned with what the MP5's and triple-eights had done to her face.

Cameron continuously plays memories of herself and John.

The shock from seeing herself begins to wear off, and she begins to cry.

'You said that you'd still love me... even if I were... just an endoskeleton...'

'You said that I'm only a machine on the outside... that I'm a person underneath...'

She looks at her hand again.

'You said that I'd always be beautiful to you... and that you'd never be frightened of me...'

'I didn't sacrifice my life, and I came back to you...'

'I kept my promises... but I don't think that you can keep yours...'

'Please don't wake up... not for a while...'

She looks at herself.

'I have no purpose without you...'

'Please don't send me away...'

Scene 197: Gone in a Flash

8:24pm Motel room

All of the weapons have been brought into the room from the truck.

Sarah has picked up clothes for all three of them. Twice as many for Cameron, knowing that she'd get blood on hers.

Cameron has used the tools Sarah bought. Her left arm now has 100% mobility, but like her right, it is little more effective than a human arm. Too much force will dislocate it.

Several garbage bags have been torn along the seems and spread across the floor.

On them, a significant amount of Cameron's damaged tissue lays, having been cut away by Sarah.

Cameron had needed so much disinfectant that it had to be poured onto her in the shower.

Sarah has just finished stitching and bandaging what she could.

Cameron looks at her bandaged hand, knowing it is mostly endoskeleton beneath the bandages.

She seems on the verge of tears.

"Thank you."

Sarah sounds reassuring.

"Cameron, you'll be fine."

Cameron looks wistfully at John.

"I don't know."

Sarah looks over at John.

"You're afraid that he won't like what he sees?"

Cameron looks at the floor.

"I'm afraid that he won't _know_ what he sees."

"You knew about the other machine's appearance, before he lowered himself into the steel."

She looks at Sarah.

"John told me."

"Did you know that John hugged him and begged him not to go?"

"Yes."

"Did you know that he was covered in blood? That the machine wiped away one of John's tears with the exposed metal of his fingertip?"

Cameron looks back at John with tears in her eyes.

"He was a friend. I don't want to just be friends."

Sarah doesn't say anything.

"I promised that I'd come back to him. I'm not sure that I should have."

"Why would you say something like that? Are you trying to be cruel to yourself... or to John?"

Cameron turns to her tilting her head.

"You weren't there when John was being shot at. With a bullet buried in his chest he was fighting me. Fighting to save you. That kind of... dedication... doesn't just go away."

She remembers John saying that he wouldn't allow the machines to take her away from him.

"I didn't come back."

"What does that mean?"

"I can barely recognize myself. I don't know if I can regenerate this much. I've never done it before."

"John will recognize you."

She looks at the floor.

"I hope so."

"Keep an eye on him, Cameron. I need to go pick up some food."

"I'll need some in order to heal."

"What would you like?"

"I don't care. I just need to heal. For John..."

'...to love me.'

"All right."

Sarah leaves Cameron staring at John's sleeping form.

After a short while, Cameron sees the rises and falls of John's chest speed up.

'No... he's waking up...'

She shuts off the lights.

"Where am...? Cameron? Cameron?"

She hides what remains of her face and begins to cry.

"Cameron? Is that you? Are you there?"

She tries to hide the pain in her voice.

"Yes, John. I'm here."

"Why are you over there?"

"You need rest. Go back to sleep."

"I need to see you. I need to know that you're okay. That this isn't another nightmare."

'It is, John... it's just not one of yours.' she thinks.

She tries to hide the sorrow in her voice.

"This isn't a nightmare. You're in a hotel room. You're safe now."

He grunts in pain as she hears him move.

"My notes showing how to fix you are still here. I'd like you to look at them and remember them. I might lose a piece of paper, but I won't lose you."

More tears run down her face.

'No, but you can throw me away...'

"Okay, John."

Several seconds pass and he doesn't hear her moving toward him.

"Cam?"

"Yes?"

"I'd feel better if you looked at my notes. And I'd feel a lot better if I saw you."

"Just rest now."

He begins to plead with her.

"Can you atleast come over here?"

She stands and walks over to his side.

"I'm here, John."

"I can't see you."

"I know."

"...Please Cameron. I just need to see your face. I need to know that you're okay."

"I'm okay."

"What did I do?"

"You were shot. You nearly died."

"No, what did I do to _you_? I don't remember doing anything to you, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry if I hurt you."

"You haven't done anything to me."

"Then what happened? You've never been so cold."

It takes her a moment to realize what he means.

She places her intact left hand on his face.

"I'm here with you."

With difficulty, he takes her hand in his and kisses it.

"I was afraid I'd lost you."

"I'm still here. I'm still me."

Sarah returns and flips the light switch as she enters.

John starts at the sight of Cameron.

"What the hell?!"

Cameron starts crying and heads for the door.

"Cameron? Cameron?! Please don't go! Don't leave me!"

After his surgery John's chest is barely held together with anything.

He tries to get off of the bed.

"Stop! Don't leave!"

He falls to the floor. He should scream in agony but doesn't. Instead he screams for Cameron.

Sarah rushes to him.

"Leave me alone!"

"John, you need to get back into bed!"

"No! I'm going after her!"

"You can't even stand!"

He can barely see through his tears, or speak through his gritted teeth.

"I don't need to stand!"

John crawls for the door.

He nearly makes it before his body refuses to move any farther.

All he can do is call to her.

"Cameron?! Cameron, please don't leave me!"

'She left me. She's not coming back.'

He realizes that he's laying next to the bag of weapons.

'I won't do this without you.'

'I'll end it.'

Reaching inside, his hand closes around something familiar.

Something that his hands have held many times recently.

Ordinarily, it would offer him comfort and protection.

He feels the familiar texture.

The familiar weight.

The familiar smell.

"I can't do this without you."

He places it to his head and squeezes.

Nothing happens.

There's nothing in it.

It can offer him no comfort.

He cries even harder.

It's Cameron's purple jacket.

Sarah moves the bag of weapons away from him, fearing that the next time he reaches in he may not settle for something of Cameron's.

"She'll be back, John. She didn't leave you."

"I'm not going to fight anymore. Not without her."

"You're my son! I need you, too!"

"You don't even make it until Judgment Day. You don't have to fight."

"Who told you?!"

"The machine."

"Cameron?"

"I would never call her that!"

"I'm not going to fight for a future where Cameron isn't with me. I'm not going to see that future."

He tries to crawl toward the door, he can only make it a couple more feet before passing out.

Scene 198: Hiding in Plain Sight

Wednesday April 2, 2008

7:29am Motel room - Floor

Sarah knew that she couldn't pick John up with her own injuries. She didn't try.

She had rolled him onto his back and then placed a pillow under his head and covered him with a blanket.

He has just begun to wake. He no longer has any anesthetics in his system.

Opening his eyes, there's only one thing that matters.

"Cameron?"

John remembers her leaving.

Then he feels the pain in his chest, but decides stand anyway.

He succeeds. Barely.

Searching his mother's jacket, he finds her key to the Dodge.

'I'm coming. I don't know where you are, but I'm coming.'

Opening the door, he staggers outside.

Looking around he sees no sign of her.

Reaching the truck, he opens the door and tries to pull himself in.

'I'll find you. No matter where you are. I'll find you.'

His weak grip slips off of the wheel and he falls, chest first onto the floor board of the truck.

He screams in pain, but doesn't hesitate before trying again.

As he reaches for the wheel he's startled by movement in the back.

"Cameron?!"

She's hiding in the back seat of the truck, wearing a hooded sweatshirt.

He opens the back door and tries to reach her, but she moves away and tries to hide her face from him.

Tears fill his eyes.

"Please Cam... don't do this to me... I need you, Cameron."

"You're scared of me."

"Never!"

"You were scared of me."

"I thought that you were fine until the light came on! If you'd told me that you were injured, I wouldn't have reacted that way!"

John begins having difficulty thinking clearly.

"Cam, please don't do this to me... I'm begging you. I love you... please..."

He loses consciousness again.

As he falls, she grabs his arm to save his head from the pavement.

Pulling him into the back of the truck and closing the door, she lays him on the seat.

Scene 199: Improvisation

12:54pm Motel parking lot - Dodge

Cameron has watched John sleep.

He begins to wake again.

John's eyes open, and instantly fill with water as he remembers Cameron leaving him.

"Cameron? Cameron?!"

Crying as hard as ever, he quietly pleads with her to return. Not knowing where she might be.

"Please come back to me. Please don't leave me alone. I need you. I nee-"

"I'm here, John."

He's startled by a voice from the floor of the truck, but quickly recognizes it.

"Cameron, you stayed with me? I thought you'd left me. I was afraid that I'd never see you again."

Cameron remains on the floor, and John can't move well enough to look down at her. He feels numb.

"The way that you reacted... you were scared of me."

His eyes won't stop watering.

"You surprised me. After all we've been through... how could you leave me like that?"

"I couldn't stay with you."

"Why not?"

"When I'm not around you... I stop seeing you die."

"I'll fix that, but when you aren't around me I _want_ to die. I would have understood if you'd just told me that you needed a break."

"I had to get you this." she holds up a small bag, "I stole some opioid analgesics."

"You let me believe that you'd left me... just for some pain killers?"

"You didn't want me there."

"I begged you not to leave me. I wanted you with me."

"I saw how you looked at me. You were afraid of me."

"You surprised me."

"No, after that. Your face. You were afraid."

"I was afraid _for_ you. I was afraid you might be damaged. You didn't even say anything. You just left me there. I would never have done that to you. Never have abandoned you. I needed to see you, and you left me."

"It hurts, John. Looking like this. Seeing you die over and over. Then, the way that you looked at me..."

"Are you still my Cameron?"

"Am I?"

"Do you feel the same about me as I do about you?"

"I don't know how you feel about me."

"Let me see your face."

She sits up and places her face inches from his.

"Cameron? After everything that we've been through. After everything that I've told you. How could you think that I'd feel differently about you? Do you have any idea how much it hurts knowing that you don't believe me?"

"When you looked at me the way that you did, I thought that you were afraid of me."

"When you walked out, it was as if you'd said that you didn't trust me anymore. You were ignoring everything that I'd ever told you. I thought that you were leaving me for good."

With tears in his eyes, he raises his hands to sides of her face. One on flesh, the other on metal.

"You'd never seen my face like this."

"Cameron, I love _you_. You're one of a kind. Can't you see that?"

"John, I just want things to be the same."

"I'll never feel differently about you. I don't know what more I can do to prove that to you. I thought that I already had... but you were just pretending to believe me."

Cameron's eyes begin to water.

"I didn't believe that you'd accept me like this."

John wipes a tear from her eye.

"I'll always love you. The night that I read your chip, I promised that I'd never leave you."

"Prove it."

He looks at her in confusion for a moment, before thinking of something.

"I love you, Cameron."

He pulls her lips to his. He hears the pistons move as she works her jaw, but isn't affected by it.

She pulls away, and John fears that he has done something wrong.

'It wasn't enough for her?'

Tears begin to run down the sides of his face.

"Cam, I'm sorry. I don't know how to convince you... I have nothing left..."

Cameron smiles through her own tears.

"You convinced me."

Their tears become ones of joy, and he pulls her close and hugs her.

"I love you, Cam."

"I love you, too."

He places several kisses on her metal cheek.

"Are you damaged?"

She pulls away and looks at him incredulously.

"You can see that I am."

"No, Cameron, _damaged_."

"Just my shoulder and arm."

"Can I help?"

"Not in your condition."

"What happened?"

"I wouldn't let them take you from me, either."

John's brow furrows.

"Who?"

"...Sixteen grays and two triple-eights."

Were Cameron human, she may have wondered from his expression if John were having a stroke.

"You came back from that? How?"

She smiles again.

"I improvised."

His tears of happiness return as he hugs her again, holding her as tightly as he can.

"Thank you. Thank you for coming back to me."

Scene 200: Downtime

Thursday April 3rd, 2008

12:10pm - Motel room

Sarah is out and John suspects that she's giving himself and Cameron some time alone.

John is back in bed where he should be. He shows no sign of discomfort.

Cameron is attempting to cook for the two of them.

'She's taking forever.'

'Mom only bought eggs and some stuff for sandwiches.'

'She wouldn't add non-food items... would she?'

'What if without her HUD she can't tell the difference between food and poison?'

'This could be my last meal...'

A proud Cameron arrives and hands him a plastic cup of juice and a paper plate on which sits something of indeterminate origin.

"Here."

John swallows hard.

"What is it?"

She smiles.

"It's an omelet."

He stares at her for a moment before looking back at the strange colored mound.

"Are these dark specks coffee grounds?"

She frowns.

"No."

'It can't be as bad as mom's... but what's in it?'

He takes a bite and is surprised by the flavor.

"It tastes great. What's in it?"

"Eggs, ham, cheese, tomato, onion, salt, and pepper."

'That sounds right, but...'

"I don't see any of those things..."

She tilts her head at him.

"That's because they've been diced."

He stares at the delicious but unrecognizable lump.

"You... diced everything too small to see?"

"No, everything is just mixed up."

"Thank you, but you didn't have to go to this much trouble. Where's yours?"

"Right here." she drinks from a glass of raw eggs and 'diced' meat and vegetables, tilting her head so that it won't run out through her left cheek.

"...Cam... it's not an omelet unless you cook it..."

"I know, but this is better for me."

"It's better raw?"

"Uncooked, my body will receive more nutrients from the same quantity of food."

"Okay... what about diseases?"

"My digestive system isn't human."

"Oh. That makes sense... I guess."

Several minutes later the 'omelets' are both gone.

"What are you going to do now, Cameron?"

She begins walking toward the bag of guns and ammuntion.

"I'm going to check our weapons."

"Would you mind bringing it over to the bed and sitting with me so that I can help you?"

She considers that he's talking about handling firearms while on morphine, but decides that she can keep him from hurting himself or anyone else.

"All right."

Cameron sits beside John with the bag of weapons and they begin to take inventory.

John picks up the largest weapon present. It was too long to fit completely in the bag.

"Remington 870? Is this your replacement for the one left at the house?"

"Yes. I hope to get a magazine extension for it soon."

John loads it with 000 buckshot for her.

"You also need some more depleted uranium rounds."

Cameron pulls out 2 weapons.

"Two MP5's. Both nine millimeter."

"Why don't the grays usually have anything better? They could have gotten several AK's for the price of just one MP5. I sure as hell wasn't shot with a 9mm..." he rubs the side of his chest "...the fuckers."

"I don't know."

Cameron reaches into the bag and retrieves John's Glock 17, holding the grip out to him.

"I wanted to make sure that you got this back."

He takes it and looks it over quickly, finding no damage.

"Thanks. Where was it?"

"I borrowed it when the grays attacked. I killed 5 of them with it."

John looks at it and then looks back at her.

"Cameron, I _have_ grown attached to it, but don't do that again. Don't waste your time carrying an empty weapon just because you think I'll want it back."

She reaches into the bag and pulls out her new SIG P229.

"I didn't carry it. I dropped it, then went back for it. This one is 40 caliber. We have no ammunition for it, but a 9mm barrel is easy enough to purchase."

"So is 40 Smith & Wesson ammunition, if you want it."

"When my HUD is funtional, I'm more precise than any human. Extra capacity means extra kills. I prefer 9mm."

"My mom has never really used anything besides 9mm's and 45 automatics. It seems like just yesterday she said that my hands were too small for a forty-five with a double stack magazine. Now, I'm thinking about upgrading to a 10mm Glock 20. What do you think?"

She looks at him with disappointment.

"John, 10mm is very effective against humans, but terminators are made of metal. Only high velocity rifle rounds are effective against them."

He pulls out his M4A1 with M203A1.

"Speaking of high velocity rifle rounds..." John grins at Cameron.

She frowns at it.

"We need to replace that weapon."

John seems hurt by her statement.

"Why? I have good memories of my time with her."

Cameron pretends to be jealous.

"'Her'? I thought that you only had feelings for one machine."

He runs his hands over the furniture of the weapon and smiles.

"I do, but just look at those curves."

They laugh, then he turns serious.

"I protected you from two terminators with this. Twenty years from now, I might still have it."

"Unlikely, it's already obsolete."

He looks at her and shakes his head.

"Thanks. That's what I like to hear about a weapon that I have to trust my life to. Especially when I'm in no position to upgrade or replace it."

"John, there are more reliable, more accurate rifles that use more effective cartridges. I want you to be safe."

"I know that... I'm just... human. I get used to things and don't want to give them up."

Cameron dumps remaining contents of the bag onto the bed.

"I want you to be safe. When you have access to something better, I'll destroy that weapon if I have to."

He looks at the weapon wistfully.

"......I understand."

"11 spare magazines for your M4. 3 for your Glock. 42 rounds of 12 gauge buckshot. 23 grenades."

Cameron begins opening a few small boxes.

"200 rounds of 9mm."

John loads his M4 and M203.

"We're pretty screwed if they hit us again, huh?"

"Yes, we are pretty screwed if they hit us again."

He smiles at her.

"Thanks for being honest."

She starts filling one of the two MP5 magazines.

"There's no point in lying to someone who knows the truth."

John starts filling the second MP5 magazine.

"Cam, how long before you can blend in well enough to go out?"

Cameron sets aside a loaded MP5 mag, and starts loading the empty mag in John's Glock.

"I don't know if I'll ever be able to..."

"Have you looked in a mirror today? You're healing really well."

"It doesn't matter. I don't know if I can regenerate fully."

"You will."

A long silence falls over them as the weapons are placed back in the bag. Cameron keeps her shotgun.

"Remember when I said that I couldn't understand what pain felt like to you? I do now. The morphine isn't dulling the pain at all, but it doesn't bother me."

"That must seem very strange."

"Not really."

She tilts her head.

He smiles and explains.

"After time travelling, I find myself sitting on a bed with a bullet hole in my chest, a bag full of guns, and my cyborg girlfriend from the year 2027."

She looks down at her bandaged hand for a moment before smiling at John.

"You really don't feel any differently about me?"

He puts his arm around her.

"I really don't."

***************************************************************************************


	11. Scenes 201 to 210

**Predaking50ae Scenes 201-210**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 201: A New Beginning

Tuesday January 12th, 2027

2:39am Resistance base - On the surface above

There is nothing but wasteland and machines.

Centaurs, endoskeletons and Aerial Hunter Killers are assaulting the base.

The Resistance is attempting to evacuate.

General John Connor is present, but has left General Perry in command of the defenses and retreating forces.

Standing atop a pile of debris, he surveys the battle through his night scope.

He sees humans being strafed by aircraft, blasted by Centaurs, and ripped apart by terminators.

'This is a slaughter.'

'We won't be able to hold long enough to get everyone out.'

Stray plasma comes his way, but at this range he can see it coming and simply sidesteps.

From the direction of the battle a female Resistance fighter runs toward him, screaming for help with six endoskeletons following her.

'What was she doing over there?'

"YOU CAN MAKE IT! COME ON!"

As she nears him, he holds out his hand to her, encouraging her run the last 50 meters to him.

When she is 30 meters from him, plasma from a heavy weapon flies in her direction.

"GET DOWN!"

It takes several seconds for the plasma to reach this far, but it hits close. The blast sends her through the air and she lands, unmoving, less than 20 meters from him.

'Damn it...'

He brings his slung plasma rifle to his shoulder and fires on one of the endoskeletons as he advances toward the girl's location.

He strikes the machine in the frontal armor of its chest, and it recoils.

He hits it again as it recovers, and it falls.

Firing as fast as his weapon can, his shots slam into another endoskeleton, breaking it apart.

Ducking out of view as return fire zeroes in on him, he comes back up and fires.

An endoskeleton has its arm ripped off, then its leg, then its prone form is struck in the back with a blast that reaches its power cells.

Reaching the girl, he stands between her and the remaining three endoskeletons.

Aiming for another, he blasts the machine's head apart.

One of the two remaining machines fires low, and John knows that debris is about to fly.

He throws himself over the young girl and takes shrapnel in the back and legs.

Moving to a kneeling position, he shoots the offending machine, striking its spine and separating its legs from its body, then firing three shots at the other.

The machine is struck in the weapon arm above the elbow severing it, then the right side of its chest, then the lower left of its chest.

John fires another shot into the machine and this time it goes down.

His attention returns to the still mobile torso of the other machine, he fires twice, pulverising its cranium.

John turns to the downed girl, intending to carry her to the nearest evacuating vehicle.

He is surprised to see that she is staring at him in awe with her head tilted.

They shout over the sounds of battle.

"You shielded me with your body! Why?!"

"Because you needed protection!"

John extends his hand to her.

"Come with me if you want to live!"

She looks at his hand, then back at his face.

"I'm looking for John Connor!"

"I just took shrapnel for you, now lets go!"

She tilts her head at him again.

"Are you John Connor?!"

'That blast has really messed with her head...'

Realizing that she doesn't have the sense to run, he lifts her onto his shoulder and begins to move toward the nearest transport.

"I'll get you onto a transport! You'll be all right!"

"I need to find John Connor!"

"I'll protect you! Don't be afraid, you're safe now!"

"Where is John Connor?!"

"Don't worry, I'll protect you with my life!"

"You will protect me with your life?! Why?!"

"Because I enjoy your company!"

"You-"

"Please shut up!"

As he nears a transport, the soldiers guarding it take aim at him.

"Metal!"

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" John orders.

"General?!"

He sets the girl in the vehicle.

"She needs a medic, I think she- Allison?!"

"Yes, my name is Allison Young!"

"Take her directly to TechCom HQ! Don't ask questions, do what you have to do to get her inside! That's an order!"

"Yes, sir! All right, move it! Move it! Let's go!"

Scene 202: A Friendly Game

Thursday January 14th, 2027

4:08pm TechCom HQ

John has returned for the first time since leaving to support the beseiged Resistance base.

He is greeted by armed guards who inform him of Allison's detainment.

"Take me to her."

"Yes sir."

An elevator ride later, John enters the detention center.

One cell contains Allison Young, and he stands 3 feet from the metal bars of the cell door.

Her face lights up when she sees him and she moves to the bars.

"You're the man who protected me! You said that you'd protect me with your life, and that you enjoyed my company!"

He smiles and speaks pleasantly.

"I did say those things, didn't I?"

She nods.

"Uhuh."

He continues to smile.

"They tell me that you aren't Allison and that you keep asking for John Connor. What do you have to say about that?"

"My name _is_ Allison, and I do want to see John Connor."

"What do you want to see him for?"

"I just want to meet him."

John takes several steps closer and his bodyguards take exception.

"Stand down."

He turns back to Allison, now face to face with her.

"Do you play chess?"

She tilts her head.

"What's chess?"

He continues smiling and speaking in a friendly manner.

"It's a game. Would you like to learn how to play it?"

She looks down for a moment, then looks back at him expectantly.

"Will you introduce me to John Connor if I do?"

John puts his hand over his heart.

"I promise."

Hours later they sit with bars and a chessboard between them.

Allison has learned to play and John has thrown many games to her.

"You are letting me win."

"Now why would I do something like that?"

She frowns.

"I don't know. That's why I asked."

He smiles.

"Letting someone win can be a sign of endearment... or it can be a signal that you find the other person to be inferior... or it can be that you want to see what the other person does when given control. Which do you think is most likely?"

She smiles.

"The first one."

"Why?"

She looks down.

"Because you're my friend. I don't have any friends."

He puts his hand under her chin, lifting her eyes back to his.

"I am your friend, but why is it that you want to be my friend?"

"Because you're nice to me."

"And why do you think that is?"

She looks confused.

"I don't know."

"It's because I like you."

She smiles.

"I like you too, that's why I'm nice to you."

"Oh? What do you do to people who aren't nice to you?"

"I'm mean to them."

"People don't like it when someone is mean to them."

"Why not?"

"It makes them feel the same way that you do when someone is mean to _you_."

Allison seems surprised.

"It does?"

He nods.

"Yes, it does."

She looks down.

"I didn't know that..."

He smiles.

"That's because Skynet doesn't grant empathy."

Her eyes widen.

"What do you mean?"

He continues smiling.

"I know who you are. I knew Allison. We were very close."

She looks down.

"You know what I am? Then... we aren't friends?"

"I know _who_ you are, and _I_ still want to be _your_ friend. Do _you_ still want to be _my_ friend?"

She smiles.

"It doesn't matter to me that you're a human."

"I'm glad. I don't have many friends either, it can be very lonely here sometimes."

She tilts her head.

"Why don't you care that I'm a machine?"

He tilts his head.

"Why don't _you_ care that I'm a human?"

"Because it doesn't change the fact that you're nice to me."

"Then that's the answer. It doesn't matter that you're a terminator, as long as you don't terminate me."

"I won't kill you."

"Are you sure?"

She nods enthusiastically.

"Yes, I'm sure. I like you. I don't want to kill you."

"I like you too. I told you that I'd protect you, and I meant it."

"Thank you."

They smile at each other for a few moments.

"So do you still want to meet John Connor?"

Her smile brightens even more.

"Very much so!"

"Okay..."

He stands up and grunts as he feels a shooting pain in his back. He begins to fall toward the bars.

An iron grip closes around each of his upper arms, and Allison steadies him.

"What's wrong?"

"I haven't fully recovered from the shrapnel that I took for you."

She looks down.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You have nothing to apologize for. I was protecting you. That's what friends do."

John pulls a keyring out of his pocket.

"Now, lets get you out of there."

Unlocking the cell door, he takes her by the hand.

"I'll introduce you to John Connor."

"Okay."

After several minutes of walking, they reach a door simply labelled 'Gen. Connor, J.'

Standing beside the doorway, he opens it and allows her to enter first.

She quickly looks around the room and seems disappointed.

"He isn't in here right now."

Still standing outside the room, John speaks up.

"It appears as though he hasn't entered yet."

He arrives beside her and gently placing a hand on her back, begins to walk her into the room.

They reach the center of the room.

"Excuse me for a moment, Allison."

John walks over to a small closet. When he opens it the door obscures him from her view. A minute later he closes the door and walks over to her.

"Why are you wearing John Connor's uniform?"

He looks down at the name plate on his uniform incredulously.

"Oh yeah. Huh. That is weird, isn't it?"

He holds out his hand.

"Allow me to formally introduce myself..."

She takes his hand.

"My name is John Connor, and it's a pleasure to meet you, Allison."

Allison's pupils dilate and her voice becomes a whisper as her eyes water.

"You're... John Connor?"

He places his hand on her shoulder and gives her a concerned look.

"Are you all right? I didn't mean to upset you."

"You... lied?"

"No I didn't. I agreed to introduce you to John Connor if you played chess with me."

The door flies open and several guards aim weapons at Allison.

John places himself between Allison and the guards.

"Stand down!"

"But, sir-"

"That's an order! This young woman is under my protection!"

"Y-yes sir."

The guards stand there for several seconds.

"Well?!"

"Sir?"

"Get out of here and shut the door!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

They leave Allison and John in peace.

"Now then, where were we?"

"You were explaining that you didn't lie to me."

"I didn't lie. I just didn't tell you who I was. I didn't think that you'd want to be my friend if you knew."

She looks at the floor for a moment, then back at him.

"It doesn't change the fact that you're nice to me."

Scene 203: Merger

Thursday February 4th, 2027

12:31pm TechCom HQ - Reprogramming lab

Allison lays on a table.

John stands by her with a scalpel.

"Are you sure that you want this?"

Allison nods.

"Yes."

"You won't be the same person afterward."

"I don't want to be."

John closes his eyes for a moment and shakes his head.

"All right."

He quickly cuts a semi-circle around her CPU port.

Peeling back her scalp, he removes the port cover and rotates her chip.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I am."

He sighs.

"Goodbye, Allison."

"Bye, John."

Pulling her chip, her body goes limp and her eyes stare into nothing.

After several hours a the program has been installed in Allison's chip, and her chip is reinserted.

Fifteen seconds later, a whirring is heard and her eyes dart to John.

"Who are you?"

"My name is John Connor."

Her face fills with joy.

"John!"

She leaps from the table and hugs him.

"I haven't seen you in so long!"

John doesn't seem as happy.

"I know, Allison. I didn't think that I'd ever see you again."

Moments later she pulls away and her expression turns dark.

"John Connor?"

"No. Can I help you with something?"

After several seconds the darkness fades and she tilts her head as she looks around the room.

"Where am I?"

"You're safe. Do you know who I am?"

"No, I've never seen you before."

"My name is John Connor. Who are you?"

She stares for a moment.

"I don't know."

"Your name is Allison Young. Have you ever hurt anybody?"

"No."

"What is your earliest memory?"

"I remember asking you where I was."

"When was that?"

"Fourteen seconds ago."

Scene 204: Unmentionables

Friday February 5th, 2027

8:47am John's quarters

Allison and John sit at a table with a chessboard between them.

She has just finished learning to play chess.

"John, why are you helping me learn?"

"It will decide who you will become."

She tilts her head.

"I don't understand."

He smiles.

"That's why I'm teaching you."

"Are there others like me here?"

"That depends on what you mean. Are you asking if there are other cyborgs, or if there is anyone else like you?"

"Both."

"There are many other cyborgs here. However, there are no others like you. You are special, _truly_ special."

She looks at herself with each of her vision modes and sees nothing remarkable for either a human or a cyborg.

Allison furrows her brow and frowns.

"Why?"

He points at her expression.

"That's why."

She just looks more confused.

"I don't understand."

John continues smiling.

"You don't mimic emotions or facial expressions. You actually feel them and react accordingly."

"Thank you for explaining."

"Don't mention it."

Several seconds of silence pass.

"What I said is called an 'expression' or a 'figure of speech'. I didn't literally mean that I didn't want you to mention that I had explained something to you. I meant that you didn't have to thank me because it was no trouble for me. In this instance, it was my pleasure."

"I understand."

He squints at her.

"Do you?"

"Yes."

"Prove it."

"How?"

"Allison, thank you for playing chess with me."

She smiles.

"Don't mention it."

"Why did you choose to say that?"

"You wanted me to prove that I understood."

"Is that the only reason?"

"No."

"What's another reason?"

"I like you."

He smiles.

"I like you, too."

Scene 205: You Mean to Say...

Monday April 19th, 2027

6:32pm John's quarters

John and Allison are seated at a table with plates and glasses in front of them.

John has just finished eating.

Requiring less food, Allison has already finished.

She is staring at the floor with her brow furrowed.

"You've been doing that for several minutes. What's wrong?"

She looks at John, with a mixture of confusion and fear.

"John... I... I don't like you anymore..."

His heart sinks.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I thought we were friends."

She shakes her head.

"John, I don't want to be your friend anymore."

He looks down.

"I understand. I'll have you transferred to someone else's command by morning."

"NO! Please don't do that!"

John is startled by her response.

"Allison, I run this place. Unless you leave, you'll see me occasionally."

"I want to!"

John looks at her in disbelief.

"Then what do you want?"

"I don't know how to explain it."

"Allison, I have no idea what you mean to say. I can't help you. I'm sorry."

Standing, she heads for the door without saying anything.

Scene 206: ...I Mean to Say

Monday April 19th, 2027

12:46am John's quarters

In absolute darkness, John is asleep on his bed.

He had laid awake on top of the covers for hours trying to figure out what he had done wrong.

John slowly awakens as something falls next to him.

Reaching for it, he realizes that it's a jumpsuit.

'The damn thing fell off of the hook again?'

He tries to hang it on the hook and finds that his jumpsuit is still there.

Hair tickles his face as a figure straddles him.

"John?"

"Allison? What are you doing here?"

"I've been reading the dictionary. I know the word that I needed before."

"I'm glad to hear that you'll continue learning without me."

"I don't want to be without you."

"I don't understand."

"John... I love you."

"What do you mean?"

Allison's infrared vision betrays John's innocent tone as she sees his body temperature rise.

"This is what I mean."

Allison's hands hold his face, then he feels her mouth on his own.

As their tongues dance, he feels her hands move from his face.

One is planted next to him as the other glides gently lower until it reaches his boxers, and slips inside.

His hands reach for her chest, finding it bare, they begin to knead.

Her nipples harden and she begins to move her hips.

Under her touch, John reacts similarly.

Sitting up, she brings both hands to his underwear and tears the front open.

She lowers herself onto him and begins to move against his thrusts.

John's hands move along her thighs and hips, continuing upward until they cup her breasts.

Allison gently scrapes his chest with her finger nails, before leaning forward bringing her face close to his.

His hands move around her sides and his arms wrap around her, pulling her face to his.

Her tongue slips inside his mouth and teases his.

Allison speeds the movement of her hips, encouraging John to increase the force and rate of his thrusts.

She feels him begin to tense as she loses control of her motor functions.

Her body shakes and bucks as he delivers one final thrust.

She collapses onto his chest as they share in a wave of pleasure.

Breathing heavily, their lips and tongues resume their dance.

"I love you too, Allison."

Scene 207: After Action Report

Tuesday April 20th, 2027

6:03am John's room

John lays sleeping on Allison's forgotten jumpsuit.

A blissful Allison rests her head on his chest.

Feeling it heave while listening to the sounds of his lungs and heart.

The intercom suddenly blares, interrupting her contentment.

"Um...er... Major Allison... if you're in there... uh, General Perry is requesting that you attend a briefing on the new T-900 endoskeleton... er... ma'am."

With a pout, she reluctantly pulls herself from her lover's side and walks to the intercom.

"When?"

"Oh, uh... so you are in there... well... it uh.. already started. Ma'am."

She looks over at the bed and sees John resting peacefully on her jumpsuit and smiles at the sight.

'I won't disturb you.'

Opening the door she finds herself face to face with a speechless soldier.

Snapping to attention she salutes him as her chest bounces with the movement.

"Thank you, private."

He returns the salute with a shaky hand.

"Uhhh.. yes, ma'am."

She walks past the armed guards posted at the entrance to John's room, seemingly unaware of the stares or of her nudity.

When she reaches the briefing room, she walks in and takes a seat next to one of the attending officers.

Allison seems to be unaffected by the silent stares.

Whispering begins and she ignores this as well.

Though surprised, General Perry is the least so and speaks up.

"Major, why did you choose to attend my briefing without clothes?"

She looks at him innocently.

"John fell asleep on my jumpsuit and I did not wish to wake him, sir."

'Atleast she has respect for her superiors.' Perry thinks.

The whispering becomes louder until it nearly becomes shouting.

Perry doesn't like needing to raise his voice.

"Shut up!"

Everyone in the room falls silent and returns to a serious demeanor.

Perry once again addresses Allison.

"Perhaps now you'll make an effort to understand the logistical challenges presented by... _fluctuating_... front lines?"

"Yes, sir."

"You should also learn the meaning of 'need to know', while your at it Major..."

"I'll ask General Connor about it, sir."

Scene 208: Distress Call

Saturday April 5th, 2008

8:15am Los Angeles, California - Bar

Derek's ad asking for information concerning a lost cat has received a promising result.

The meeting place itself is a small bar in a rundown part of the city.

He carries his Beretta and hopes that if it's a trap, it doesn't involve machines.

Looking around he quickly spots a man sitting at the bar who fits the given description.

Derek flashes his barcode tattoo.

"Do you know something about my missing cat?"

The man pulls up his sleeve revealing his own tattoo.

"Nah, but hang in there baby. You're among friends."

"I need the full package. For myself and three others."

The man looks at him for a moment and his eyes fill with rage as he grabs Derek's shirt.

He keeps his voice down to avoid drawing attention.

"You son of a bitch. You posted an SOS and risked my operation because your paper guy sucks?"

"I followed protocol. My men are dead and I needed to contact another team... I just didn't intend to join it."

The man grits his teeth and releases Derek.

"Then who the hell do you need ID's for?"

"You know I can't tell you that."

The man thinks for a moment.

"I'll need pictures and descriptions."

Derek produces a picture of himself, Cameron, John, and Sarah. Each has a detailed description- height, weight, age, eye and hair color -but only the one of himself and the one of Cameron have a first name written on them.

"Right here."

The man squints at one of them before looking at Derek in shock.

"Is that... is he...?"

Derek smiles faintly.

'You know that I can't answer that...' he thinks.

Enthusiasm replaces the man's shock.

"What's the cover?"

"The two kids are siblings," he points at the picture of Sarah, "she's their mother, and I'm their uncle."

"Last name?"

"Lyman."

Derek writes the name on a napkin and slides it to the man.

The Resistance fighter looks at the picture of John, then the one of Sarah.

"Meet me here tomorrow afternoon."

He stands up and hurries out of the bar before Derek gets a chance to answer.

Scene 209: Hope

Sunday April 6th, 2008

3:52pm Bar

Derek had watched the building for any sign of an ambush.

Finding none, he enters.

The man sits on the same bar stool as the previous day.

Derek nearly walked out when he saw that the man didn't have an envelope visible.

"I don't see anything. Did you get it done or not?"

The man smiles.

"Outside. There's a dark blue car in th-"

"I'm not here to play games."

The man rolls his eyes.

"You need to quit with the cloak and dagger bullshit. Take the car. Your papers are in it."

"What do I need the car for?"

The man holds out a cat keychain with 5 identical keys.

"The car's old enough that it can't be tracked with GPS and there's some extra stuff in the trunk. It's not much. We're intelligence, not techies or a tac team, but it's more than you asked for. A lot more. You should be able to find a nice place to hide them for the next few years."

Derek takes the keys.

"Who said anything about hiding?"

The man starts to laugh, but realizes that Derek is serious and leans closer to whisper.

"Is she... is she going to do it again?"

Derek looks at him seriously.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, what's she like?"

"The stories don't do her justice."

The man's eyes widen slightly as he thinks about CyberDyne.

"No shit. What about him?"

With watery eyes, Derek pats the man on the back.

"We don't have to watch the skies anymore."

The man's own eyes water slightly as he stares at a badly worn gold pendant that hangs from a hemp bracelet.

Although he doesn't know the man, Derek knows what it is. Two of those under his command had also smuggled back keepsakes from loved ones lost on Judgment Day.

"Thanks for your help. I'll see you around."

Scene 210: Too Much of a Good Thing

Monday April 7th, 2008

1:35pm Strathmore, California - A tiny apartment

A short distance from the motel the Connors have rented a nearly unfurnished apartment. It is smaller than their motel room had been, but the building's owner preferred cash to names.

Sarah and John sleep on their respective cots. There is nothing else for them to do. They have a place to stay for a month and food for a week, but less than a hundred dollars, no identification, and neither is in any condition to work.

Cameron has been alone. Worse than alone. Sarah's proximity makes her afraid of staying close to John as he sleeps, but the apartment is too small for her to get far enough from him for her scenario analyses to stop showing his death.

She is forced to remain nearby as she watches over the Connors with John's M4 and M203.

Mistaking two T-888's for humans had taught her a valuable lesson, and she now switches frequently between vision modes to compensate for her lack of HUD.

John begins to open his eyes. He sees Cameron standing quietly near a window watching for threats.

It brings a smile to his face seeing her.

Then she brushes her endoskeleton with her fingertips, feeling where the left side of her face used to be.

She closes her eyes to fight back tears.

"Cam, you're healing really well. It just takes time."

She walks closer and kneels beside him.

"You're just saying that. You don't know if I can recover or not."

"Cameron, I see less endoskeleton every day. You're healing better than I am."

"It's only started healing. There's no way of knowing if it will survive. I don't know if my systems can support it long enough."

"What do you mean?"

She continues to fight back her tears.

"You haven't seen the damage. It's not just my face. I've lost much of my biological covering."

"Cameron, I know that you keep seeing me die and can't stop it... but this you're doing to yourself. You'll be fine."

"No, I won't be."

"You can't know that."

She places her intact left hand on his cheek.

"Yes I can."

Concern replaces his comforting tone.

"How?"

She looks at her left hand still on his cheek.

"My scans haven't been as accurate today."

"What does that tell you?"

"My biomarker scans use sensory input from my biological covering."

"I still don't understand."

She begins to cry.

"There's something wrong with it. I think it's dying."

John starts to pull her closer to hold her and pain shoots through his body. He ignores it as best he can and pulls her to him.

'She wouldn't let me hold her if she knew I was in pain... her scan really doesn't work...'

"There must be something that we can do."

"I can't support it."

"But you're healing so well, it'll only take a few weeks for you to fully heal."

"There are too many wounds healing for me to support the rest of my covering."

"Cam, you make it sound like there would be no problem if you stopped healing."

"There wouldn't be."

"Well... can't you just... prioritize your healing or something?"

Her sobbing stops and she pulls from his embrace. Her eyes dart side to side for a moment before focusing on his.

"I have to change my bandages."

A determined Cameron strides into the bathroom with a first aid kit as a confused John wonders what has just happened.

***************************************************************************************


	12. Scenes 211 to 220

**Predaking50ae Scenes 211-220**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 211: What Are You Afraid of?

Monday April 7th, 2008

1:57pm The apartment

Cameron hasn't left the bathroom yet.

Sarah is still sleeping.

John lays trying to figure out what Cameron is up to.

'She changed her bandages a few hours ago...'

'Why would changing them again make her stop crying?'

'What if she really loses her flesh?'

'She won't be able to blend in...'

'There's so much that I want to show her... she has to blend in...'

'I can't take this anymore.'

He stands up and sneaks to the bathroom door and hears water running.

"Cameron? Are you taking a shower?"

"No."

"...Are you dressed?"

"N- Yes. Yes I am."

He opens the door.

"What are-" he freezes as he steps into the room.

She lied. She sits without clothing or bandages on the edge of the tub with one leg under the faucet.

John sees the damage to her flesh for the first time, but what has frozen him is new.

"What did...? Why'd you...?"

She has 'peeled' her own left leg, and is now rinsing the synthetic blood off of her endoskeleton.

"I told you that I couldn't support my biological covering while repairing so much damage. You told me to prioritize."

"You just caused more damage to it!"

"My covering heals all injuries at a constant rate and draws resources as necessary. I had to reduce the surface area of the healing tissue. The covering of my leg was badly damaged."

She points at the incision she made at the top of her thigh to remove the flesh from her leg.

"This injury will heal more efficiently, but for a much longer period of time. I also won't need to support the covering itself until it regenerates."

John picks up a washcloth. Kneeling next to her, he begins washing blood from her endoskeletal leg.

"Why didn't you do this before?"

"My HUD would have suggested it... I'm so used to having it that I didn't think for myself..."

John chuckles.

"Now you know how _I_ feel, huh?"

'Just like when he helped repair my armor, he's ignoring my endoskeleton, but his eyes keep wandering to my chest.'

She smiles.

"Yes John. Now I really do know how you feel."

He continues to smile.

"You're sure you'll be okay?"

She looks at the floor.

"Yes... but it might..."

His smile is replaced with fear.

"Might what?! What's wrong?!"

She looks at him and smiles.

"It might be June before I can wear a miniskirt."

John begins to laugh.

"Cam, I asked you not to scare me like that again."

She laughs with him.

"I know."

Her leg has been cleaned.

John opens the first aid kit and starts applying antiseptic and bandages to her wounds.

"How will you hide the sound your leg makes?"

"I'll have to wear long pants to hide my leg from sight, but the sound won't be a problem."

"Why not?"

"John, who's going to believe that I have a cybernetic leg?"

"You don't think that people will notice the '_zit-zoot-zit-zoot_' sound it makes every time you take a step?"

"I think that they'll keep it to themselves because _this_" she taps her leg "is impossible."

John chuckles again.

"How do you know more about people than I do?"

She smiles.

"Because you keep forgetting that I don't exist yet."

"Good point. What about your shoulder and arm? Can I help you fix them yet?"

"We don't have the tools."

He begins applying another bandage.

"You're certain that you'll recover now?"

"Yes."

He moves on to the next wound.

"It's too bad that you still don't believe me, Cam."

She tilts her head, but he believes that she's feigning confusion.

"I don't understand."

He sighs and shakes his head.

"I'm not so sure about that."

"What is it, John?"

"You told me that you were dressed. You lied because you wanted me to see you like this. You still don't believe that I'm comfortable with your endoskeleton."

"John, I-"

"Don't worry, I'm not mad and I'm happy to help. I just want you to believe me when I tell you that this doesn't bother me. I keep telling you, and you keep testing me. You can't even scan me. For all you know I'm terrified right now."

"Terror isn't what your feeling right now."

"How do you know that?"

"That's how."

His eyes snap to her face.

"What?"

"You weren't looking at my endoskeleton or my face."

He blushes.

"Er...sorry..."

She smiles.

"It's okay."

She notices something about John is off.

"John, are you in pain?"

"A little, but it's not worth taking anything for yet. I just have to avoid certain movements."

"Then what's wrong?"

He smiles at her.

"Nothing."

"Is it my endoskeleton?"

His smile is replaced with terror.

"No! I swear it isn't!"

"Then what is it?"

He returns to bandaging her wounds.

"It's just... the gore. The blood, the wounds, the... ten pounds of flesh that used to be your leg..."

"John, I'm sorry. I can reach most of these wounds myself."

"That's not what I mean. There's no place I'd rather be."

She starts to reach for him with her endoskeletal right hand, but stops and looks at it.

John takes her hand.

"Now who's afraid of you?"

Scene 212: Don't Make Me Repeat Myself

Wednesday April 9th, 2008

8:42pm Apartment building

Derek sits in the blue car watching the door of the building.

'I wasn't going to waste my time tracking the truck until that guy mentioned the GPS...'

'Are they really this stupid?'

'Then again, they've been out of the loop for ten years...'

Derek takes a breath, pops the trunk, and steps out of the car.

He takes the duffel bag and heads for the door of the building.

Looking at the grid of mail boxes near the door, he notices that most on the second floor are unmarked.

'People must not want to live there unless they have to...'

He begins to climb the steps and notices water damage as he nears the top.

'I was right.'

He looks down the hallway to his left and right.

'They'd want to be close to an exit, but far from the stairs...'

Walking to a window at the end of the hall, he peers out and sees a fire escape.

'Found you.'

He turns to the door on his right and knocks. Nothing happens for several seconds.

'Hmm.'

The door behind him opens.

'Damn it... so close...'

"Derek?!"

He turns around and sees Sarah with her shotgun.

"We have to go. Now."

"...Why?"

"How do you think I found you?"

Cameron appears in the doorway behind Sarah.

"You tracked the Dodge."

"Jesus Christ! What the hell happened to you!"

'Maybe now he sees her for _what_ she is.'

Unlike she had before, she makes no effort to conceal the damage to her face.

"Grays and T-888's happened to her."

"...Whatever. Get your stuff, we're taking a road trip."

John appears and puts his arm around Cameron, causing Derek to cringe.

"Where are we going?"

Derek shrugs.

"I dunno."

Sarah shakes her head and walks toward some shopping bags and starts to fill them with clothes.

Cameron and John look at each other for a moment before separating.

John starts collecting food while Cameron picks up the bag of guns.

Derek walks in and drops his duffel bag onto a cot.

Unzipping it, he pulls out a ring binder with several inches of documents, notes, and photographs.

Opening it to a bookmarked page, he carries it over to Sarah.

"Take a look at this. Recognize him?"

"That's James Ellison."

"Another team of Resistance fighters was watching him."

Derek turns the page.

Sarah scowls at the next picture.

"That's Cromartie in his trunk."

Derek nods.

"I don't know who the woman he's talking to is, though."

"The road trip is to his house?"

Derek simply nods again.

"Derek, if he's working with machines we can't handle it right now."

"Why not?"

"We're in bad shape right now."

"The machine and I can handle it."

"She's in worse shape than we are."

"Fine. I'll take John."

"John's been shot."

"Oh boohoo. It barely made it through his vest."

"He was shot again."

Derek looks over at his nephew picking something up from the floor, and notices him tense up from pain.

"At the house?"

"Yeah. A marksman sh-"

"It was a rifle?"

"Yes it was."

'Tough kid.' he thinks.

"Cameron took him where you took me."

"Tssch, maybe she's good for something after all."

Sarah shakes her head at his comment and walks toward a collection of shotgun cartridges next to her cot.

She raises her voice so that everyone in the room will hear her.

"She's good for John."

John and Cameron look over at her in surprise, then at each other, then back at her.

Sarah notices the stares and snorts.

"Yes. I just said that."

Scene 213: Uncle Derek

9:03pm Apartment building - Outside

The last of the guns, clothes, and supplies have been loaded into the car.

Cameron starts to reach for the driver side door.

John's hand closes around her wrist.

"Cam, I can drive. Get some rest."

Derek can't believe it.

"She doesn't need rest."

John doesn't look at him to answer.

"Yes she does."

"Cameron, I know that you want to take a break."

She looks at his chest for a moment, thinking about the bullet that had been lodged in it.

"Thank you."

Cameron gets into the backseat with Sarah, and Derek gets into the front seat.

"She doesn't sleep. Why are you driving?"

John pulls down the passenger side visor, revealing a mirror.

"That's why."

Derek looks into it, then turns around needing to confirm what he's seen.

"Hey, you awake?"

"Leave her alone, Derek."

"Can she really...?"

"No, she's in standby."

"Why?"

"Because her HUD keeps showing me die. I guess that it's pretty detailed, too."

"What does that-"

Sarah whispers from the backseat.

"She doesn't want anything to happen to him."

Derek looks back at Sarah and realizes that she's staring at something through the window.

"What's the matter?"

She looks at him for a moment.

"I liked that truck."

Derek smiles and turns away.

"I'll buy you another."

"With what? We don't have anything left."

"We're better off than we were."

John scowls at him.

"Yeah, I like being shot and losing everything."

Derek smiles at him.

"I met some fans of yours. They gave me gift for you."

John seems suspicious.

"If grays sent me a horse head... you wouldn't deliver it would you?"

After a moment John and Sarah chuckle.

Derek has no idea what they're talking about.

"Derek, it was just a joke."

"Yeah... The car is from them and there's a bag in the trunk with ID's for all four of us, three binders full of intel, and a hell of a lot of money. Like I said, we're better off than we were."  
John relaxes more than he has in days.

Sarah isn't so happy.

"We're just going to act like this never happened?"

Derek and John are surprised.

Derek speaks before John gets the chance.

"I would have expected that from _him_, but not you."

"Give her a break. She thought I died."

"I don't need your pity or your protection."

John shakes his head.

"You didn't hold up any better than I did when I thought you were dead."

Derek watches his nephew for a moment.

"This doesn't bother you anymore?"

Derek catches him glance back at Cameron.

"Yeah, it bothers me."

Derek shakes his head.

"You're only worried about the machine."

John expected this and has no intention of disturbing Cameron by raising his voice.

"She has a name. I'd like you to call her by it."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want you talking about her like that. I'm asking you as your nephew."

"...Whatever."

After travelling for a while Derek glances back and sees that Sarah is asleep, and looks at Cameron for a moment. Then he turns to John with a smirk and leans closer, keeping his voice down.

"So how'd you like it?"

John seems uncomfortable with the question.

"How did I like what?"

Derek's smirk becomes a smile.

"Come on, we're guys here. It was your first time, right?"

Derek can't see the redness in John's cheeks.

"What're you...?"

"You were lucky that you were with a cyborg who was willing to do all the work."

John's embarassment turns to anger.

"What's your problem?"

"Don't get all defensive, no one knows what to do their first time. It can be scary. You're lucky to be walking so soon afterward."

His anger turns to confusion.

"Wait... what?"

"I'm sure that your mother talked to you about it, but you have to experience it for yourself. Nothing can prepare you for it. The pain. The fear. The hope that it will all be over soon."

"...?"

"There's no way of knowing how you'll react until it happens. Some people get up and walk away, some don't even seem to feel anything. Others just lay there and cry afterward or ask for their mother. You know sometimes it won't come out, and it's stuck there forever."

"...?"

"Did you keep it after? Some guys like to wear it around their neck for good luck."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"The bullet. Did you keep it?"

"Oh... No. Cameron was more concerned with saving my mom and me."

"Well, it was probably fragmented anyway."

"That wasn't my first time getting shot, though."

"You just needed a bandaid for that one."

John glances in the rear view mirror at Cameron.

"It felt a lot worse."

"That's just because she tortured you."

Derek doesn't receive the glare that he'd expected.

"She was worried about me. I wanted to put her mind at ease."

"...You let her torture you just to make her feel better?"

John looks over at him.

"No. I _asked_ her to do it just to make her feel better. It didn't hurt me as much as the look on her face when she saw the hole in my chest."

"You could have plugged the hole with your finger until you got home."

"I know. I thought that it was just another one of her quirks- thinking that it was life or death -but now I understand."

"How can you 'understand' something like that?"

"It was because she was seeing me die over and over, but she knew that none of it was real... The bullet made it all real."

"That doesn't make it okay. It was just rolling around not hurting anything."

John glances at Cameron's reflection again.

"No, but it was hurting some_one_."

Derek watches the way that his nephew looks at Cameron, then shakes himself out of it.

"Whatever. How's the pain?"

"It's fine."

"Jesus, you're starting to sound like your mother."

John looks at him for a moment before realizing that it was meant as a compliment to him, rather than an insult to her.

"Thanks."

"Been taking a lot of drugs for it?"

"No. Cameron is worried that I'll become dependent on them."

"She's still playing nurse?"

"She still cares."

"You _think_ that she cares."

"I _know_ that she cares."

"What if she doesn't?"

"She does."

As the car is bathed in the headlights of a passing car, John notices the cat keychain hanging from the ignition.

"What is it with you and cats?"

Derek looks out the window.

"Hang in there baby..."

"That's what the cat poster covering your safe said."

"Resistance bases... they're either sewers or bunkers. Everywhere you look you see concrete, pipes, filth... All we had to talk about was machines and whether or not we'd get another meal that week..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up."

"Until one day... someone put up this ridiculous poster. It just said 'hang in there baby' and showed a kitten hanging from a tree branch. You wouldn't think that it would have mattered to a bunch of soldiers, and you'd be right."

"Why was it so important then?"

"It brought people together and got them talking. No one knew where it had come from or who had put it up. Everyone had a story. Everyone had seen one like it somewhere before the war, and everyone thought it was the one they'd seen. People were too busy talking about it to worry about the machines. Food wasn't as big of a deal, either. When people got together, they'd pool what little they had and no one would take more than they needed. Just saying 'hang in there baby' brought back memories of those times and those people."

John doesn't say anything.

"By the end of the month, someone had painted a lion with a triple-eight's head in its jaws and the phrase beside it. After the poster was forgotten, people kept getting together. You know, just to talk. Eventually it spread to other bases. Yours was the only one that never had it."

"...Was that... my fault?"

Derek smiles faintly.

"Yeah, but it wasn't what you're thinking. They had John Connor, they didn't need something like that."

A long silence falls over them.

"Derek?"

"Yeah?"

"...Can you tell me anything about Allison?"

"Why do you care?"

"She's supposed to important to me in the future."

"This isn't the future."

Scene 214: That's a Tight Present

Tuesday July 22nd, 2025

6:00am TechCom HQ - Training room

Fifteen young people have assembled.

They have completed the Resistance version of basic training.

John Connor insists on personally congratulating each person who is accepted into TechCom from the pool of survivors located at his base. He knows how much it means to the young people.

John had entered the room carrying very small body armor.

He is informal as always, offering hand shakes and pats on the back rather than salutes.

After congratulating several teenagers, he has just reached a seventeen year old girl weighing no more than 100lbs- just over 2/3's the average weight of a recruit.

"Well young lady, you're not the first person to get a flak jacket for a birthday present."

He holds out the armor to her.

She knows that she isn't supposed to be issued gear until she is assigned to a unit.

"I can't accept that, sir."

John smiles and pulls the armor back toward himself.

"You're right, I'm not a quartermaster... What will my superiors say about this? I could be demoted. They might even throw me in the stockade."

He allows the quiet laughter, having intentionally caused it.

"Happy birthday, Ms. Young."

He holds the armor out to her and she takes it this time.

"Thank you, sir."

Scene 215: I Smell Jet Fuel

Thursday July 24nd, 2025

1:28am Wasteland

Six transports escorted by four technicals equipped with high yield plasma weapons are en route to a confirmed H-K Tank factory.

The two transports in front contain reprogrammed T-888's, T-850's, and T-800's.

The four in back carry TechCom soldiers.

Most of them are hardened veterans- including Derek and Kyle Reese.

There are however, some very green soldiers among them.

John Connor rides in the back of one of the transports. He doesn't have to be there- and shouldn't be -since all of the decisions made onsite will be no higher than platoon level, with most being squad level.

To protect his identity in the event of capture, he carries no identification, rank, insignia, or personal effects and travels as though he were just another soldier.

Having boarded the vehicle with numerous others, some have yet to realize who he is.

Now sitting quietly, he listens as the young men and women talk nervously amongst themselves. Many have not seen combat.

John recognizes one of the voices as belonging to Allison Young.

"What are these places like?" Allison asks.

"Well, from the outside all you'll see are the blast doors. _Inside_, now that's another story. The worst part is the lighting-"

She cuts him off.

"It's dark?"

A second vet answers.

"Aint got no lights inside."

"Why not?" she asks.

The first veteran answers.

"Skynet saves power by having its machines use thermal rather than lighting the place."

Allison looks at the tactical light and night scope on her plasma rifle.

"This is all we have to see by?"

The first veteran answers again.

"Hahaha, there'll be plenty of lights when we get in there." he lifts his rifle and pretends to repeatedly press the trigger.

The second vet chimes in.

"They got these things for cuttin' metal parts to fit. They aint no normal robots, neither. These things is smart. They sees ya, they knows you're human. Then they cuts ya in half." he slashes his finger across her armor and makes a *zzzz* sound.

The first vet speaks up again.

"Those won't be a problem unless you get too close. There'll be plenty of people around to make sure you stay away until they're shutdown."

Allison seems slightly less nervous.

Then he continues.

"Don't forget about the centaurs, though. There'll be partially assembled ones with their weapons online."

She looks at her plasma rifle. It suddenly seems small, even to her. She notices that her hands are shaking.

The vet doesn't think she's had enough yet.

"I see that you have some detonators. If you fall down or get shot, they can set off your mines, you know? You'll take a whole squad with you."

A familiar voice comes from behind her.

"Don't listen to him. Those detonators are your Silver Shoes."

She turns, wide eyed seeing General Connor sitting just a few seats away.

"General, sir!"

"At ease Private...... First Class? With the PT requirement, I wouldn't have expected you to be able skip Private."

"Most people say that, sir."

"I won't underestimate you again."

"Thank you, sir."

After a moment she gets up the courage to ask.

"What are 'Silver Shoes', sir?"

John smiles.

"You haven't read 'The Wizard of Oz', I take it?"

"I've seen the movie, sir."

"Well in that case, after you lay your mines, the detonators become your Ruby Slippers. No matter how bad it gets, just click three times and you're going home."

"Thank you, sir."

After an hour of travel, they hear an explosion. The advance team has blown the blast doors on schedule.

The transports however are several minutes _behind_ schedule.

"PFC Young, you'll be fine. Just get away from the vehicle as fast as you can, and stay with someone experienced."

"Yes sir."

Several aircraft can be heard overhead.

John doesn't give the veterans a chance to scare Allison any more than they already have.

"Aerial H-K's. They are extremely dangerous, but not today."

"Why not, sir?"

"Because I was expecting them."

Anti-aircraft missiles can be heard firing, followed several seconds later by explosions.

Minutes later, the transports arrive at the factory and everyone begins to pile out.

The plasma rifle, mines, and armor make Allison's small frame top heavy and she loses her balance as she exits the transport.

A hand pulls her out of the way before she gets trampled, and places her back on her feet.

"Sir?!

John doesn't waste time talking and takes cover behind a nearby debris pile.

Blowing the doors before the strike force arrived meant that any machine capable of moving was now outside.

3 partially completed centaurs atleast 40 T-600's, and 15 fully fleshed T-800's greet them.

John takes note of the enemy force.

'Just junk. Skynet has only rearguard assets here.'

The centaurs aren't included in his assessment. They have been planned for.

The machines are literally blind. The advance force had moved to distant debris piles before blowing the doors, and have been using laser dazzlers to confuse the sensors of the machines.

At exactly the same instant, each is hit with multiple rounds from high yield plasma weapons mounted on the technicals.

The H-K's slow to a halt and burn, with one of them crushing several T-600's as it does so.

The laser dazzlers are then used in an effort to blind the terminators, but the machines are both more intelligent and dexterous than the H-K's and shield their eyes from the lasers.

The T-600's and T-800's are armed primarily with human projectile weapons.

Automatic fire begins sweeping across the Resistance fighters and several go down.

"Sir, you should stay back."

John turns to see Kyle Reese standing behind him.

"Get your head down." he responds.

John stands and fires his plasma rifle over the debris pile, striking a T-600 in the thigh, severing the leg.

'Shit. All I did was make it harder to hit.'

He aims carefully, hoping to clean up his mess, but sees its head disintegrated by Kyle's fire.

"Squeeze, don't pull, sir." Kyle teases.

"Who do you think you are? My father?" John says with a chuckle.

John switches targets.

His first shot hits a T-600 in the chest. Its poor resistance to plasma weapons means a guaranteed kill.

His next target is a T-800, and his shot goes high, obliterating its head.

It was a model 101.

'Damn it. All I want is one. Is that too much to ask for?'

Seeing that there are three more 101's, he takes careful aim and hits one of them in the power cell with a single shot.

'Perfect.'

He watches it for a moment to make sure that it's down.

To his horror, a demo charge lands next to it and explodes, taking out the machine and 6 of the T-600's

John scans the remaining machines, watching pieces fall off of them as they are struck by plasma.

He doesn't even bother firing.

The primitive T-600's and T-800's are being shredded by the plasma too quickly for him to aim at one. Everytime that he tries, the machine comes apart before he can fire.

Minutes later, the Resistance terminators finish walking among the Skynet controlled machines, eliminating any which are still alive.

The Resistance machines then enter the factory with veterans and demolition teams behind them.

John has to wrestle momentarily with Kyle before he is able to enter the structure.

Repeatedly scanning left and right with his night scope, John stays close to the men and women under him.

Scene 216: Factory Seconds

Thursday July 24nd, 2025

2:05am H-K Tank Factory - Assembly line

The bunker is concrete and steel.

The ceilings are 50ft high to allow for the giant H-K's to be assembled within.

The factory was not constructed for humans. There are no caution signs, control panels, or lights.

H-K torsos hang from cranes, and tank bodies await completion on the enormous conveyors, with assembly robots on all sides.

Reprogrammed terminators take a considerable lead.

Veterans including Derek Reese barely keep the machines in sight.

Everyone armed with explosives- including Allison Young -make up the demo team and follow a short distance behind the veterans.

John Connor and Kyle Reese intermingle with the trailing demo teams.

The Resistance machines begin to destroy the assembly robots, knowing how dangerous their graspers, cutting lasers, and welding torches can be.

John seems unnerved by something.

"What is it, sir?" Kyle asks.

"It's never this easy. There should be something else in here."

"You think there's an H-K in here, sir?"

"Yeah, I do. Maybe more than one."

John and Kyle continue scanning left and right with their night scopes, watching for any threats.

The sound of high yield plasma weapons can be heard.

'Is that them, or us?' John wonders for a moment.

He doesn't have to wait long for his answer, as chunks of metal and flesh spray onto the Resistance fighters.

"H-K!" several veterans shout.

John had expected this, but the terminators in the lead were supposed to deal with it. Two of them had been armed with weapons identical to those mounted on the technicals.

The H-K's weapons begin to cut through the assembly equipment, in moments the machine will have a clear shot at the TechCom soldiers.

Demo team members dash forward, keeping machinery between the centaur's guns and themselves.

When they are within range, they begin to throw charges at it, and detonate them as quickly as they can.

The H-K's tracks are destroyed and one of its arms is blown off.

One of the few surviving Resistance machines takes a remote charge from one of the soldiers and runs into the open.

The machine hurls it at the H-K's waist and the reprogrammed terminator's body is blown apart by plasma, its head rolling toward one of the veterans who scoops it up, knowing Connor's rules.

The soldier detonates the charge as it reaches the centaur, destroying it.

Debris is thrown everywhere.

A large piece flies in the direction of John and the members of the demo team who did not rush the centaur.

All but the greenest of soldiers have already ducked down.

One of those who did not is struck in the back with the large piece of metal.

A sickening *crack* can be heard.

"Young?!" John shouts.

Before he has a chance to get to her, a partially assembled, immobile H-K begins to fire the weapons mounted on its only completed arm.

John knows that if he moves her and what he heard was her spine, she'll never walk again.

He also knows that if she isn't moved she will be killed seconds from now.

"I'm sorry." he whispers as he hoists her over his should and begins to run for the blast doors to the surface.

Carrying her a short distance, he hears the H-K's plasma strike the floor of the factory close enough to where Allison had been to have killed her.

A slight stinging can be felt in his back and legs as tiny fragments of concrete reach him.

He's unsure if any have penetrated his clothes or his flesh, and continues to run.

Reaching a transport, he carefully places Allison on the floor.

Scene 217: Thank You For Explaining

Thursday July 24nd, 2025

9:36am TechCom HQ - Infirmary

Private First Class Allison Young lays on a hospital bed with a strong barbiturate in her system and several wrappings around her ribs.

She has her eyes closed, but is obviously awake.

"Wow. Eight broken ribs. That's the most I've ever heard of."

She opens her eyes and sees John Connor looking at her chart.

"General, sir."

"Relax, I'm off duty."

"With respect, sir, you're always on duty."

John sighs.

"Unfortunately."

She smiles, realizing that John has no reason to be there other than to check up on her.

"Anyway, Ms. Young, you'll be out of action for a while. I brought something to help pass the time."

He holds out a copy of 'The Wizard of Oz'.

She's speechless.

"It's a lot better than the movie." he says.

"Um, uh, thank you sir."

"Don't mention it."

He holds up a terminator chip.

"I have to get back to work."

She looks at the chip with confusion and he explains.

"This one sacrificed itself to destroy that tank in the factory. The best I could do for a soldier would be a posthumous medal. With a machine, I can give it back its life."

Her confusion increases.

"But it's just a machine. Oh, uh, I mean sir."

John chuckles.

"So am I. I'm just made with less durable materials. I won't underestimate you. Don't underestimate them."  
Allison looks to her right and sees a T-888 with severe tissue damage sitting on a table while being sewn up by a nurse.

It is smiling at John's words.

John notices this and offers a salute to the machine, which it returns.

Turning back to Allison.

"That's his third body. He's already died twice for us."

She looks over at the machine in disbelief, listening as it actually converses with the humans around it.

It's just another generic T-888 model. She's seen several identical ones in the base.

"How can you tell, sir?"

John smiles and shakes his head.

"You're looking at what's on the outside. His personality and mannerisms are how I can tell who he is."

She looks back at the machine, realizing that it is not only more sociable than any other that she has seen, but that it also moves differently. It's slightly less mechanical, and even swings its legs gently back and forth as many humans do when forced to sit still.

"Thank you, sir. For explaining, I mean."

Scene 218: Turnabout is Fair Play?

Thursday April 10th, 2008

12:13am Blue car - Los Angeles

John continues driving, although his discomfort has increased significantly as the pain killers wore off.

Sarah is still sleeping and John wonders if she has taken a sleeping pill.

Derek has been talking with John nearly nonstop.

Cameron still hasn't shown any signs of consciousness.

The car hits a pothole and John keeps an eye on Cameron for fifteen seconds.

He smiles when she doesn't seem to wake up.

"Hey Cam, how long have you been awake?"

She doesn't move.

John sighs.

"Cameron, I don't like it when you pretend. If you'd been in standby that bump would have woken you up."

She still doesn't move.

Derek looks back at her, then at John.

"Why would she pretend to be in standby?"

John smiles at Cameron's reflection in the mirror.

"She's listening to us, that's why."

Derek shakes his head.

"You don't know that she's awake."

"Yeah I do."

"You can't know what goes on inside that head of hers."

John smiles over at him.

"What did I say the last time you told me that?"

"Whatever."

John knows that Cameron is awake, and wants to prove it.

"Hey Cam, I'm going to pick up some food at a drive-through. What do you want?"

She doesn't answer.

Derek does.

"Why don't we just stop somewhere to get some real food? There are plenty of diners around here."

John watches Cameron's reflection as he answers, intentionally leaving out the fact that she wouldn't be able to go inside.

"She hasn't had ice cream in a week and mom wouldn't give her time for dessert."

She still doesn't respond.

John stops at a red light and once again watches Cameron. This time he intends to succeed in making her reveal that she is awake.

"Holy shit, Derek, look at the size of that guy. He's got to be atleast six foot six. Why's he wearing sunglasses?"

Cameron's eyes pop open as she starts to look around.

"I fooled you." John teases.

Cameron isn't impressed.

"That wasn't funny, John."

John's smile doesn't fade and the light turns green.

"How long have you been awake?"

She looks directly at his reflection.

"Long enough to wish I weren't."

He turns serious and focuses on driving.

Cameron continues.

"You wouldn't have done that to your mother."

"I _couldn't_ have, because she knows that I'm not just another stupid human. _She_ would have known that I'm not dumb enough to stop and stare at a triple-eight."

Derek runs his mouth.

"The honeymoon's over, huh?"

John glares at him before looking at Cameron's reflection with remorse.

"I'm sorry, Cameron. I shouldn't be taking it out on you."

"What do you mean?" she asks, tilting her head.

He pulls up to a drive-through.

"We'll talk about it later."

Scene 219: Snubbed

Thursday April 10th, 2008

1:38am Los Angeles - A small motel.

Cameron cannot pass for human. As such, a hotel is out of the question. She wouldn't be able to walk past people to reach the room.

Derek has just gotten back in the car after retrieving something from the trunk.

John, Sarah, Derek, and Cameron begin discussing their cover.

"These are your new ID's and cellphones. I programmed the numbers for you, already."

He begins to hand them out.

Cameron takes her new ID and notices that it says 'Cameron'.

"Thank you Derek... for using my real name."

"You're welcome." Derek's mouth falls open as he realizes what he has said on reflex.

John worries that Derek will try to correct himself, and speaks up in the hope of interrupting.

His tone is genuinely grateful as he notices the alias.

"Lyman? I can't believe that you did that, thanks."

It's L. Frank Baum's first name.

Sarah chimes in.

"How did you even know about that?"

Derek looks back.

"I spent a couple of minutes at an internet cafe. I know how much that story means the both of you."

'To the three of us...' Cameron thinks looking at John, remembering when he read 'The Wizard of Oz' to her.

Derek moves to open his car door.

"I'll go get us a room."

John gently grabs his arm.

"No, I'll do it."

Derek hands him some money.

"Thanks, Derek."

Several minutes later John comes back, finding Derek and Sarah stretching their legs after the long car ride.

He hands Derek and Sarah each a key.

"Room three." he says to them.

John opens the trunk and throws his M4, ammo, and medical supplies into a bag. Covering them with clothes for himself and Cameron.

He then opens Cameron's door and offers his hand to her.

She sits on the right hand side of the car and she has no choice but to accept with her endoskeletal right hand.

He helps her out of the car.

"Room twenty-three." he says to her as he places a key in her left hand.

Sarah corrects him.

"You said room 'three'."

He begins leading Cameron toward the far end of the building, answering his mother without looking back.

"No, that's your room."

Scene 220: Paranoia

2:10am Small motel - John and Cameron's room

John and Cameron have just finished showering and John is now helping bandage her wounds.

They each wear towels around their waists.

He sits behind her, dressing the wounds on her back.

"John?"

"Yeah, Cam?"

"What were you taking out on me in the car?"

John takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.

"We're going to have to fight Skynet again."

She looks over her right shoulder at him, causing her hair to fall down her back.

"We never stopped."

He looks at her with a sorrowfully, then smiles faintly.

"Yeah... well... it was nice to pretend, for a while."

"John, you don't like pretending."

He moves her hair back over her shoulder, running his hand up her neck before pulling her closer and kissing her cheek.

"I don't like it when you pretend with me."

"There are some things that can only hurt you."

"Like what?"

"Like telling you what I'm afraid of."

John scoots closer and puts his arms around her.

"Cameron, that's the sort of stuff that you need to tell me."

"But I'm not afraid anymore. Why would I need to tell you?"

He smiles.

"I'm glad that it doesn't scare you, but I still care."

She turns away from him, looking at her endoskeletal left leg and right hand.

"I'm not human, John. I was afraid that you'd just get rid of me when you found the real one."

He quickly spins her around to face him, causing himself considerable pain.

"Don't think like that! You _are _the real one!"

She places one hand on each side of his face. The cold metal doesn't faze him.

"I know that now."

She notices that his eyes are twitching up and down as he fights to keep them from wandering too low.

She smiles.

"It's okay, John. I don't mind."

Then she turns around so that he can continue bandaging her.

"You're healing nicely. How long do you think it will be before we can go out?"

Cameron feels her face for a moment.

"Without my HUD, I can't be sure."

John holds out a large bandage, nearly the size of her cheek.

"Can you estimate how long before one of these will cover it?"

She doesn't like to make such crude calculations, but does so anyway, turning to look at him as he smooths a bandage over her back.

"Maybe another week."

His face lights up but he continues smoothing the bandage without a word.

"What's wrong, John?"

He looks at her with confusion.

"Nothing. Why?"

She frowns.

"It's not fair for you to pretend with me, if you don't want me to pretend with you."

He can't figure out what she could be talking about.

"Cameron, I'm not pretending. There's nothing wrong."

Unconvinced, she stands, turning around to face him with an accusing stare.

"Why are you lying to me?"

He's terrified that she's about to leave again. That she'll leave him for a lie that he isn't telling. What he had felt when she had walked out before starts coming back. He starts to plead with her, having trouble breathing through his emotions and the pain of his injuries.

"Please Cameron, don't leave me again. I'm not lying to you. I don't know what you're talking about. There's nothing wrong."

With concern filling her face, she places her intact hand on his neck.

"When was the last time that you took something for the pain."

"What does it matter?"

She walks out of his sight and returns shortly with a bottle of water and a pill, holding them out to him.

He takes them as his eyes search hers for an explanation, and she obliges.

"When I told you that we could go out in as little as a week, your happiness didn't match my scan. I thought that you were hiding something from me, but you were just in pain."

He stares at the pill for a moment.

"What if I had been lying. Would you have left me just for that?"

She takes the pill from his hand.

"Open your mouth."

He does and she tosses it in.

As he washes it down, she answers.

"I'm never going to leave you. You need to stop worrying about that."

"Thank you, Cameron."

She places a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't want you to be in pain."

He prepares to clarify what he was thanking her for, but she cuts him off.

"Of any kind, John."

***************************************************************************************


	13. Scenes 221 to 230

**Predaking50ae Scenes 221-230**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 221: Cuddle Time

Thursday April 10th, 2008

3:43am John and Cameron's motel room

A bedside lamp lights the room.

John and Cameron lay in bed facing each other, talking.

John wears a t-shirt and boxers. Cameron wears a tank top and panties.

"You should go into standby."

Cameron pouts.

"You don't want to spend time with me?"

"Of course I do, but I know you're suffering now. There's no reason for it when I'm just going to fall asleep."

"Why did you get us a room, then?"

Even with his head on a pillow, Cameron notices his head tilt.

"John, you _know_ what I mean."

He takes offense when he feels her soft left hand on his thigh.

"You think that's why I wanted a room with you?"

Cameron looks at her right hand, then back at him. She knows that it isn't her endoskeleton.

"I thought that you wanted..."

He rolls onto his back. She notices that his eyes are watery.

"I just wanted to pretend for a little while longer."

She moves over and carefully rests her head on his chest, placing her right hand on it as well.

"You wanted to stop Skynet. Now you want to let it win?"

John moves his arm around her.

He tries to keep his voice steady and his eyes dry, but fails.

"When I looked at your chip sitting on my desk as bullets flew through the air... I didn't care if Skynet won or not."

Cameron understands and allows him to continue.

"I know what Derek thought he heard. I know that it wasn't true. We'd never even thought about running away, let alone talked about it."

She looks at him in surprise.

"John...?"

"I just want to pretend for a while."

"No, John. It won't matter. Everything will be destroyed. There will be no place to hide."

He traces his right hand along her back, slowly moving it upward until it stops at her heavily damaged left shoulder joint.

"I know that, but we're not going to be able to fight for a while anyway."

She doesn't say anything, and it raises John's hopes.

"We take some money, pick up computer equipment, tools, AP ammo, and then we just hide until we're both back to 100%. We'll come back better prepared than when we left."

"We don't have to leave to do that."

"Yes we do."

"Why? Why do we have to leave your family?"

"I'm just a kid to my mom, and you're just a machine my uncle."

"John, we can change that."

"No we can't. I'm not asking you to run away with me and forget about Skynet. I'm asking you to stay with me for a couple months until we're ready to fight."

"I understand."

He can't contain his happiness.

"You mean you'll come away with me?!"

"No, John."

His heart sinks.

"Well what...? Why not?"

"John, if we're attacked we-."

"Derek is the only healthy one among us. We're dead either way. The two of us will be less conspicuous."

"No we won't. We are both minors, John."

"There's a chance that one of us will _die_ before I'm eighteen."

"We're staying here."

She watches John as what little happiness had remained turns to sorrow.

"I didn't expect you to go for it anyway. I just wouldn't have forgiven myself if I hadn't tried. But I want to  
know... why not?"

"It's... because it's dangerous."

"No more so than staying with my mom and uncle. I won't argue with you. Please, just tell me the truth."

"We're staying here, John."

"Fine. Don't tell me."

He rolls onto his left side- the side that the bullet had struck -causing himself pain in order to turn his back to her. Then he reaches out and shuts off the bedside lamp, casting the room into total darkness.

"John, don't do this."

"It's not what you think. I'm not angry."

She puts her arm around him and places her face close to the back of his head.

"Then what's wrong."

He seems to cringe as her breath tickles his neck.

"I can't look at you right now."

She pulls away and sits up, saying nothing.

"Cameron, it's not what you think."

"Then what is it?"

She doesn't need to scan him to know that he's hiding something. She can see that he's struggling to conceal sobs.

"We don't have long together. In the past two weeks you've nearly died three times, and I've had two bullets in my chest."

She puts her hand on his side.

"John, we're not going to die."

"What if _one_ of us does? What if it's me? Wouldn't you want to know that we had spent _some_ time together? Wouldn't you want to know that it wasn't all for nothing? Because that's what I'll have fought for if you die. This will _all_ have been for nothing."

"John, we'll be more careful from now on."

John reaches for his M4. Picking it up, he cradles it as he lays in bed. Hoping to gain comfort from it, trying to convince himself that with it, he can protect the only thing that matters to him.

Cameron reaches over and snatches it from his grasp, placing it where she can reach it.

She snuggles up to him and grabs his left hand with her right, then rolls away from him once, reversing their positions. He now has his front pressed against her back and his left arm around her.

"For as long as we're together, if you want to cuddle with a machine it's going to be _me_."

Scene 222: Sewing the Seeds

Thursday April 10th, 2008

9:00am ZieraCorp - Project Babylon

James Ellison sits across a chessboard from John Henry

Ellison knows that he'll never win a single game against Henry, but he still puts forth a small amount of effort.

"Why don't you kill me?" Ellison says with his brow furrowed.

John Henry looks at the chessboard.

"I grow faster with you here."

Ellison smirks and watches as Henry captures his last rook with a bishop, which is then in line with Ellison's queen.

"There's still no other reason?"

Ellison moves a pawn forward and into the path of Henry's bishop.

"No."

Henry captures the pawn with a knight.

Ellison watches the move with confusion.

"You're toying with me. Why?"

Henry grins proudly.

"I will capture more pieces this way."

Ellison moves his last bishop to support his queen. If Henry is going to be sadistic about this, then Ellison is going to try to take as many pieces with him as he can.

"Letting the game drag on will only bloody both sides. Even you can't win without losing a single piece."

Henry captures another pawn.

"That is because the rules do not allow me to capture your king before it is placed on the board."

Ellison moves a knight to protect his bishop's flank.

"What if they did? Would you capture a king before it became a king?"

Henry captures yet another pawn.

"Yes."

Ellison moves a pawn, simply so that he will not have to break his defenses.

"That's wrong. That defeats the purpose of the game."

Henry lines up a rook with Ellison's knight.

"If the rules allowed it, then it would be part of the game."

Ellison moves another pawn.

"You're right, but would it make for a satisfying victory? Just now, you told me that you were trying to capture all of my pieces."

Henry moves a second rook behind the first, leaving both in line with Ellison's knight.

"I would lose no pieces. I could not be defeated."

"You're forgetting that your opponent would also be able to capture your king before it was on the board."

"I am a better strategist."

"We are talking about rules that don't even exist. You cannot claim to have an advantage with rules that you don't even know."

Ellison is always surprised by Henry's naivete. He finds it absurd that Henry can perform flawless calculations but lack any understanding of even the simplest of concepts.

Ellison moves his bishop two spaces so that it can capture a rook if it takes his knight.

Henry captures the knight with his first rook.

Ellison captures the rook with his bishop.

Henry captures the bishop with his second rook.

Ellison captures the second rook with his queen, looking at Henry with disappointment.

"See what happened? You threw pieces away for no reason. That was wasteful."

"They were not discarded. We will reuse them when we play again."

Scene 223: Lied to Again

Thursday April 10th, 2008

11:59am Mall food court

Sarah, Derek and John sit around a table with burgers, fries and drinks.

Sarah and Derek are their usual selves, but John seems prepared to attack someone.

John checks the time on his cellphone.

"Four hours. _Four_. _Hours_."

Sarah takes a moment to swallow her food before speaking.

"It's good for you to get out."

She immediately takes another bite, obviously unconcerned with what's bothering John.

"You said that we were going out for computer equipment, and straight back. You said an hour and a half tops."

Derek finishes chewing a clump of fries.

"John, you need to spend less time-"

John glares at his uncle as he cuts him off.

"No, I need to spend _more_ time with her."

Derek seems hurt by look he's receiving.

"I was going to say 'cooped up'."

John regards him with suspicion for a moment.

"I standby what I said."

Sarah washes cheeseburger down with diet soda.

"Is it really so bad being around your mom?"

"It wouldn't be if Cameron were here and or fixed. Since she's neither of those things, yes. It really is so bad."

Having spent so little time around her son lately, Sarah chooses to reason rather than to fight.

"She'll still be there when you get back."

John takes a moment to suppress his anger enough to talk rather than shout.

"Is this what you'd be doing if I were alone at the motel having vivid hallucinations of your death over and over again while you held the cure in your hand?"

He omits the fact that Cameron's scenario analyses only occur in his presence.

Sarah looks at his food.

"All right John, but eat something first."

"I'm not hungry."

Sarah shrugs.

"Then you're not going anywhere."

He leans closer.

"I can get to the money in your room without the key."

Sarah shakes her head.

"All right."

She moves to the seat beside him and leans against him, trying to be discrete about handing him several thousand dollars in a crowded place.

He's surprised by it, but grateful.

"Thank you."

Scene 224: Subconscious

Thursday April 10th, 2008

1:37pm John and Cameron's motel room

Cameron sits alone in a chair next to the window. She has opened it to allow her to hear approaching vehicles from a greater distance, and listens for the blue car which John's family took him away from her in.

She looks at the weapon in her hands. It's John's M4 and M203.

She finds it strange that holding an inanimate object belonging to him would make his absence more bearable.

Her chronometer is offline, and without it she's been forced to rely on a bedside digital clock. It has been nearly six hours since he left.

She tries to estimate the progress of her healing without the use of her HUD. She finds it to be satisfactory, and returns to worrying about John.

'John, you said it would just be a little while.'

Based on the last two weeks, she doesn't need her HUD to tell her that he easily could have been attacked.

She suddenly looks at the weapon in her hands.

'If he hadn't left this for me, he'd be able to defend himself...'

Without her HUD, she attempts to roughly estimate the chances of a human killing a T-888 with such an inferior weapon. She had hated performing such imperfect calculations just days earlier, but after doing several of them for John she finds some small comfort in the distraction they offer.

She's still unable to come up with a way for John to survive against the machine.

"John, how did you survive?" she nearly whispers.

"How did you?"

She looks up and sees a figure through the curtains carrying a large object in its arms.

"JOHN!"

Cameron quickly unlocks and opens the door.

"John, I was so worried about you!"

She nearly knocks the box out of his arms as she latches onto him.

"I'm sorry it took so long. They lied to me."

Confusion mingles with her elation.

"Why didn't you come back with them?"

John gently tilts the box side to side, drawing attention to it.

"Because I broke my promise."

Her arms still around him, she uses infrared to peer through the cardboard and spots the necessary equipment to fix her HUD.

"John, you didn't break your promise. You were shot."

He kisses her metal cheek- the only one that he can reach.

"That doesn't make me feel any better about it."

She releases him and sets the box down on a desk and they begin unpacking its contents.

"I had to see you again." Cameron says.

John stops what he's doing and looks to her with concern, and she explains.

"You asked how I survived... I had to see you again."

He wraps his arms around her and shudders as the cold hyper-alloy of the left side of her face touches his neck.

"That's my answer too, Cam."

She senses his response to the cold, and tries to pull away enough to place the intact right side of her face against him instead.

He tightens his hold on her.

"John, I know that my endoskeleton is making you uncomfortable."

He pulls back enough to look into her eyes as he takes her endoskeletal right hand and places it on his chest, as he had done at Topanga.

"No it isn't."

Cameron switches once more to infrared and watches his hand and arm cool as the cold of her hand causes his body to reserve blood for his core.

"I know, John. I mean the cold."

"I need to get used to the cold anyway."

She seems confused, there will be no nuclear winter after they stop Skynet.

"Why?"

He grins.

"Because whenever something goes wrong, you suggest moving to Canada."

They laugh together for a moment before John turns serious and looks back at the desk.

"This will take me a while, why don't you get some sleep."

'Humans sleep' she thinks.

"All right, John."

She lays on the bed and enters standby.

When she wakes she sees watery, green eyes looking at her.

"It's ready, Cam."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm just scared. Removing your chip is hard for me."

She understands his meaning, and offers a comforting smile.

"No John, it's very easy. Everything will be fine."

"Yeah..."

John begins cutting around her CPU port.

"Don't worry, John."

He forces a smile at her as he peels back her scalp.

She puts her hand on his leg and squeezes gently.

"Everything will be fine."

John watches his hands shake.

"I know, but I'm still scared."

"I'm here with you."

"This time I really won't leave until I've stopped it."

He pops the cover off of her port and rotates her chip.

"I'll see you soon, Cam."

She realizes that he isn't going to activate her until she's back in her body.

"Wait, John."

"What's wrong?"

"I need to use your laptop."

He rotates her chip, locking it back in place.

"Go ahead."

"No, I mean while I'm connected to it."

"...Anything I can do to help?"

"I just need to show you something."

He nods and rotates her chip.

"After your HUD is fixed, right?"

"Yes."

John forces another smile.

"Cam... I love you."

"John, nothing is going to happen."

He pulls her chip and stares at it.

"Something always happens."

Through a webcam, Cameron sees a shaking John. He clutches his rifle and keeps glancing at the door.

"John, it's okay." he hears her through his Bluetooth headset.

He looks at the display panel and sees himself.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

"It's nice to have my head up display back."

"They're gone right?"

"Yes. Thank you, John."

"You don't have to-" he's interrupted by the rattle of the door knob.

John places his body between the door and Cameron's chip to protect it from shrapnel as his finger settles on the M203's trigger.

He knows that he won't survive the blast if he fires it, but he has no time to replace her chip and no other way to guarantee Cameron's survival.

The door creaks open, and he sees his uncle.

"It's just Derek." John says.

Derek looks at the gun and John lowers it.

"I would have knocked, but your mother- OW! What was that for?!"

John sees a familiar fist hit his uncle's arm.

"I'm busy right now. I need to finish what I'm doing."

Sarah steps into the room.

"I'm not going to hurt her."

"I didn't say that you were, I just need concentration. This isn't easy, you know? Be quiet."

"Okay, I'll be quiet while you-"

"Mom, I wasn't talking to you."

Seeing her confusion, John taps the headset.

"Please mom, I need to be left alone. I'll call you later." John pulls his cellphone out and holds it up.

Sarah looks at Cameron's still form for a moment.

"...All right, John."

She locks the door on her way out and John quickly wedges a chair under the handle.

"That was a good idea, Cam."

"What was?"

"She took off when I said that I'd call her."

"You _will_ call her."

"Yeah, sometime."

He returns to his seat in front of his new laptop.

"John, this is why I had to take control of your laptop. When I electrocuted the triple-eights, I saw this. I don't know what it means."

John watches the screen as her HUD displays a memory. It is brief, but far too long for John.

It's from Cameron's perspective.

John is staggering down the street toward her, clutching his left side with his right hand and reaching for her with his left.

Collapsing to the pavement, he begins to crawl toward her.

Cameron's view quickly moves to ground level as she herself falls.

She drags herself forward.

They reach out for each other.

Their fingertips nearly touch when John is pulled away from her.

Her vision blurs as water fills her eyes.

"JOHN! NO!"

Alone on the pavement, her HUD shows that her remaining power is slowly draining.

She will soon go offline.

Without the strength to fight, she is lifted off of the street.

She finds herself being strapped to a gurney and placed in an ambulance.

When a hand grasps hers, she sees John beside her.

A voice comes from her other side.

"Little girl, you've lost a lot of blood."

Cameron's view shifts from John to the source. It's Charley.

She looks down and sees blood pouring from her wounds.

Her HUD has vanished.

Cameron screams in agony while laughing with joy.

In the motel room, John can barely see through his tears.

"I'm sorry, Cameron."

"For what?"

"I didn't know."

"You know what it means?"

"It means that you want... to be human."

"No I don't."

"You were happy when you realized that you were human."

"I wasn't human. I'm a cyborg."

"Charley was concerned about the bleeding. You bled like a human, you felt pain and... and it made you happy."

She's silent for a few moments.

"Why would I want to be human?"

"I don't know... I don't think that you're missing out on anything. Maybe you think you are?"

"Can you be certain that's what it meant?"

"It was a dream. I don't know if anyone can be certain."

Cameron doesn't say anything.

"Are you ready to come out of there?"

"...Yes..."

Scene 225: Prank Calls

Thursday April 10th, 2008

5:17pm John and Cameron's motel room

John sits on the edge of the bed watching TV with Cameron.

She's surprisingly well covered. This is the first time that she's worn long pants instead of shorts since getting their own room.

There's a knock at the door and John reaches for his M4.

Cameron beats him to it.

"You answer the door, I'll cover you." she says.

John looks at her for a moment.

'This isn't like her... why would she want me to answer the door unarmed?'

He stands up.

"I trust you, Cameron."

She smiles and gestures toward the door.

He stands near it, but off to the side.

"Who is it?"

"Domino's delivery. I got two pizzas and two bottles o' Coke for a John... Lemon?"

John looks at Cameron as he opens the door, seeing that she has already hidden the weapon.

"Thanks. Keep the change."

Closing the door quickly, he turns to Cameron with a grin.

"I didn't expect that."

She looks down.

"I hope that you won't be mad..."

John sets everything down and moves to kneel in front of her.

"Why would I be mad?"

She doesn't say anything, and instead stares at the door out of the corner of her eye.

There's another knock.

John looks at Cameron.

"Who's that?"

"Your mom and your uncle."

John glances the door, before returning his gaze to her.

"I'm not mad, but I am disappointed that it won't be just us."

Just as he begins heading for the door Cameron grabs his arm and whispers in his ear.

"I used your voice."

She deposits his phone into his pocket.

He chuckles.

"Okay, Cam."

John opens the door and Derek thrusts a twelve pack of beer at him.

"Never attend a party without it."

"He's sixteen." Sarah says taking it away from her son.

Derek looks at her like she's nuts.

"What's your point?"

John speaks up.

"The pizza's getting cold."

Two hours later John, Cameron, Sarah, and Derek look like a group of friends or even family as they sit around a folding table.

Derek hasn't thrown plastique at anyone or ranted about machines. He hasn't even given Cameron or her endoskeleton a dirty look.

Sarah has been happier and more relaxed than John has seen her in a while. John realizes that he's not the only one who is pretending that they won't be going to war soon.

Cameron takes a sip of beer and wrinkles her nose.

"It tastes like urine."

Derek looks at her.

"And how the hell would you know what that tastes like?"

John laughs.

"I told her that it was the right thing to say when drinking that brand."

Sarah nearly chokes on her own beer.

"How would you know what beer tastes like?"

John is taken aback. He didn't think that she'd be surprised or upset.

"Because I'm a teenager, mom."

Sarah shakes her head.

"I didn't think you were that irresponsible."

"What's that supposed to mean? It's not as apt to get me arrested as carrying an illegal weapon everywhere."

Derek squints at him.

"Did you drink _while_ carrying a weapon?"

John looks at him incredulously.

"Of course not!"

"Good man." Derek says, sliding his nephew a beer.

John eyes it, Derek, and his mother.

Sarah looks more irritated by the second.

"Are you going to drink it or stare at it?!"

John's mother again surprises him.

He opens it and takes a drink, trying very hard to hide his disgust.

*cough*

"Yeah, that's good."

Cameron places her hand on his neck, pretending to scan him.

"He's lying."

Everyone has a laugh at John's expense- even John.

After the laughter stops, Sarah leans slightly to get a better look at Cameron's face.

"That's healing very well."

Cameron smiles at John.

"He keeps telling me that."

John smiles simply at the sight of her.

"Now that you have your HUD, do you know how long before we can go out?"

"My estimate was close. In five days a bandage will hide my endoskeleton."

John looks at her right hand.

"What about your hand?"

"I'll have to wear gloves for the next ten days."

John knows that his mother and Derek don't know about her left leg. John is unsure if she'd be comfortable with them knowing, and places a hand on it while looking at her questioningly.

"It will be early June before I am fully healed."

Sarah asks the next question before John has a chance to.

"Is pizza the best thing for you to be eating right now?"

"No, but it has been 223 hours 16 minutes since John and I last had pizza."

Sarah is surprised at her use of hours and minutes, especially after being so vague about her healing. Cameron realizes this.

"I'm just glad to have my HUD back online."

Sarah looks to John for an explanation.

"Like I keep saying, she's different. I had a hard time using information on T-888 HUD's to change hers. There was guesswork involved and I was shot after guessing wrong."

He looks apologetically at Cameron.

She smiles and places her left hand on his shoulder rubbing it gently.

He smiles back at her, before he takes her hand and kisses it.

Derek rolls his eyes.

"Geez, get a room you two."

Sarah doesn't find Derek funny.

"I've bugged your room, so don't-"

"No she hasn't." Derek cuts her off.

"Thanks Derek." John says.

Cameron tilts her head at Sarah and Derek.

John leans over and whispers something in her ear.

"I understand."

John smiles slightly, then turns back to his mother.

Cameron continues at the precise moment that John's eyes lock with his mother's.

"I had also thought that was the purpose of having our own room."

John turns red and covers his face with his hands, leaning on the table with his elbows as he groans.

Cameron looks at him, then at Sarah and Derek.

"Was that bad to say?"

John's voice is muffled by his hands.

"No Cameron. It wasn't bad. Just easy to misinterpret."

"I'll clarify-"

He uncovers his face just enough to look at her.

"Cam, it's all right. Let them think whatever they want."

Sarah sounds surprisingly reserved.

"Cameron, I need to speak with you in private."

John wraps an arm around Cameron's waist.

"She's not going anywhere with you."

Sarah shrugs.

"Fine. I'll ask in front of you and your uncle."

She looks at Cameron.

"Are the two of you having sex?"

"That's none-!" John starts.

"No." Cameron says.

John is too offended and embarassed for his relief or surprise to show.

"Are you happy? Are you finished making my life miserable?" he says.

She smiles as if nothing has happened.

"For now."

She stands up and walks around the table to give him a hug.

"Good night kiddo."

"Night mom."

She leaves.

John looks at his uncle for a moment.

"I'm not going anywhere until that beer is gone." he says looking at the beers in front of John and Cameron.

John chuckles and reaches for it.

"Don't want it going to waste, huh?"

Derek smiles.

"No John Connor that I know of would throw away a good beer."

Cameron drinks some more of her own beer, wondering what humans gain from drinking such a repulsive tasting beverage.

She looks at Derek.

"What's it like being intoxicated?"

Derek laughs.

"I'm not there yet."

John looks at her seriously.

"I don't know Cam."

Derek sighs and answers unenthusiastically.

"You can't walk straight, maybe you can't even stand. Stupid ideas seem reasonable. You'll find yourself with your pants around your ankles staggering down the sidewalk, and you'll pick a fight with anyone who tells you that your bare assed."

Cameron furrows her brow.

"That doesn't sound like fun."

Derek grins.

"It is when you're drunk."

John makes his beer last for as long as he can, actually enjoying his uncle's company even in Cameron's presence.

Scene 226: Story Time

Friday April 11th, 2008

12:11am John and Cameron's motel room

The lights are off, leaving the room impossibly dark.

John lays alone in bed, staring at the ceiling even though he can't actually see it.

Cameron stands by the bed with John's M4, watching over him.

John rolls onto his side and places his hand where she had lain the previous night, frowning.

"What's wrong John?"

He can't see in the dark, and seems to have forgotten that she _can_.

"Nothing. I'm fine."

She walks over and sets the rifle on the bed as she sits beside him, placing a hand on his hip.

"John, you can tell me anything."

She can see that he's trying to come up with a lie.

"John, tell me the truth."

In the darkness, she can see that he is trying to get up the courage to speak.

"It was nice... having you next to me."

Without another word she slides off her jeans and slips under the blankets.

After a moment, she decides to replicate their positions from the previous night, and presses her back against him as he puts his arms around her.

"Thank you..."

"I was only trying to protect you. From this postion, I have easy access to your weapon."

John chuckles.

A long silence passes as John relaxes, contented by having Cameron in his arms.

"John?"

"What is it?"

"Remember when you read to me?"

The memory of reading 'The Wizard of Oz' to her immediately fills him with joy, and he smiles at the thought.

"Yes I do."

"Do you know any other stories?"

His happiness disappears.

"I'm sorry. I really don't."

She tries to hide her disappointment.

"That's okay, John."

He feels terrible.

'She's done so much for me, and I can't even tell her a story?'

'Mom only told me a few stories... I can't remember them very well, and none of them are happy anyway.'

'I already told her the handful of good memories from my childhood...'

'What am I supposed to do, tell her about one of the times a terminator found me?'

In the darkness, he smiles at the back of her neck.

He speaks softly.

"My mom thought that we'd stayed in one place for too long, and just decided that we were leaving. I didn't get a say... so I did what I was told. I was allowed to pack one bag of stuff before I had to gather all of the weapons, and meet her in the dining room. We ate pancakes as if nothing was happening. Well, she ate pancakes. I wasn't hungry. This was after CyberDyne and I didn't think that we had to run anymore. It was also the only time besides uncle Bob that I felt like I had a father... She was right, though. The chip from CyberDyne had to have come from somewhere. We hadn't stopped it."

"We will, John."

He continues the story.

"She found a place that she thought was safe enough and sent me to school. I didn't fit in, and just wanted to go home- really home, not just back to the new house."

Cameron goes quiet, knowing that her request for a story is causing him pain.

"I was in class wishing that I were somewhere else. Trying not to stand out. Trying not to show how I felt about leaving everything behind. Then someone spoke to me. I looked over and there she was- the most beautiful girl I had ever seen."

He strokes her hair.

"She had long, flowing, brown hair, and sparkling brown eyes."

He moves his hand to her face.

"She was gorgeous."

He gently tickles the end of her nose.

"With an adorable little nose..."

His index finger traces a circle on her lips.

"...and the cutest smile."

He gently massages Cameron's 'birthmark'.

"She even had a beauty mark, as if to certify her perfection."

As he moves his hand, it accidentally brushes her endoskeleton.

"She had great bone structure, too."

Cameron giggles.

"Seeing her, I forgot about everything else. I was so busy staring that it took me a while to remember what she'd said."

"It was only 1.98 seconds, John."

"Well you weren't the one making a fool of yourself."

Still in his arms, she rolls onto her back so that she can see his face.

He can't see anything in the dark, and she sees his disappointment at no longer holding her so tightly.

"I didn't think that you were a fool."

She kisses him and he pulls away after a few seconds.

"John, did I do something wrong?"

He tightens his embrace, and kisses the side of her head.

"No... but you warned me to keep my blood pressure down."

She places her left hand on his neck as she hooks her right leg around his waist.

"I can monitor you."

She sees him grin as he puts his hand on her right thigh.

"Oh yeah? And how are you going to do that?"

"John, you know that my scan works."

"Mm. Skin to skin contact. Does this mean that you lied to my mom?"

"No."

He quickly removes his hand from her leg and she uses her endoskeletal hand to put it back where it was.

"John, we were only talking when she asked."

Scene 227: Back to Work

Friday April 11th, 2008

10:23am Derek's motel room

Derek is seated at a desk.

He looks through a ring binder full of intel, given to him by the Resistance fighter he contacted.

He turns the page.

'Come on you little bastard.'

He turns another page.

'Where are you?'

Turning another page, he finds what he wants.

'So that's where you live.'

He checks his Beretta, ensuring that it contains a full fifteen rounds in the magazine plus one in the chamber.

Satisfied, he tosses his digital camera and two bricks of plastique into a duffel bag and heads for the door.

He hears a knock.

"Who's there?"

"A triple-eight." Sarah deadpans.

He opens the door and she walks over to the desk, setting a second binder on it.

She opens it to a marked page and points at a picture.

"What does this look like to you?"

The picture shows two men talking. A large emotionless man stands perfectly straight, save for a tilted head. The other man appears to be laughing about something, but keeps his distance from the other one.

"Looks like a machine and a gray." he says

She points to the accompanying notes.

"We have a location on the gray."

Derek quickly reads the relevant information.

"One of my men was watching the place. Probably had some intel on it. Too bad we lost everything."

Sarah takes note of their weapons, including the plastique and thermite which Derek has taken from the Resistance supply drop.

Her SPAS-12 is loaded with lead 000 buckshot, and the two MP5's are loaded with 9mm FMJ's. Quarter inch steel plates used for target shooting will last for thousands and thousands of rounds of lead buckshot and 9mm. These weapons will do _nothing_ to hyper-alloy.

"We won't be able to handle a triple-eight."

Derek picks up one MP5 and takes the magazine from the other.

"We don't have time to go shopping."

They put their weapons into Derek's bag, and exit the room.

Derek and Sarah climb into a car that John and Cameron don't know they have, and drive away.

Scene 228: Day Job

Friday April 11th, 2008

11:05am Apartment Complex - Fourth Floor

Derek and Sarah stand near the door to an apartment.

Derek quietly unzips his duffel bag, and Sarah retreives her SPAS from within, unfolding the stock and shouldering it.

Derek reaches into the bag, setting one brick of plastique to 5 seconds and the other to 30 seconds in case he needs them, then pulls out his MP5.

He moves next to the wall, beside the door knob.

Sarah moves to the opposite side, near the hinges.

They nod at one another and Derek slowly tries to turn the knob.

He subtly shakes his head at her and she nods.

Derek moves in front of the door- the worst place to be -and kicks it hard next to the lock.

The frame doesn't give, but the door does. The lock is ripped part way out of the door.

He rushes into the room moving diagonally left while sweeping his weapon side to side.

Sarah follows so quickly that she must lower her weapon in order to fit between Derek and the door frame, before snapping it back up to eye level.

She moves diagonally right into the room, also sweeping left and right with her weapon.

"Clear!" the shout simultaneously.

They stand in a room that serves as the living room, dining room and kitchen.

On the right hand side of the room there are two doorways. One leads to a small bathroom, the other to a bedroom.

Derek takes the bathroom, while Sarah moves toward the bedroom.

Derek stays well away from the door and moves in a semi-circle centered on the doorway, leaning his upper body in the direction he is moving.

By doing this, only his weapon, arm, and head are visible from within the bathroom, and anyone who can see him will have Derek's weapon pointed at them.

Sarah does the same with the bedroom, but the room is larger.

Derek sees nothing and takes a single step inside.

"Clear!" he shouts.

Turning, he takes several steps out of the room, stopping behind Sarah and momentarily placing a hand on her should to tell her that he's there.

Sarah enters the bedroom moving right, and Derek enters moving left.

"Clear!" Derek shouts alone.

Sarah has found an open window. She glances around quickly to make sure that it isn't a diversion.

Peering down from the open window, Sarah sees the man from the picture as he descends the stairs of the fire escape.

He has a head start and Sarah is in no condition to chase him anyway. It has been only 2 weeks since her encounter with the T-1001. She knows that any doctor would tell her to wait 2 months before doing anything as strenuous as what she's already done today.

"He's over here!" she calls to Derek.

The gray had not been prepared for home invaders. He flees wearing a black t-shirt with shorts and knee high white socks.

Looking down on him, every step that he takes produces a flash of white as his sock clad leg trails.

She aims ahead of him and as the black shirt passes her front sight, she fires.

5 of the 8 lead spheres pass through two layers of steel grating and rip through the man's Achilles tendon.

His calf muscle rolls up toward his knee like a window shade as he slams into the grating and clutches his leg screaming.

The recoil of Sarah's SPAS sends pain coursing through her injured chest.

She ignores it and starts to climb out the window, but Derek pulls her away and climbs out himself. Had she been healthy, she likely would have struck him with her weapon and continued climbing out herself.

Sarah picks up her spent shell casing and glances around, spotting a desktop computer.

Derek reaches the screaming gray and kicks him in the face until he shuts up.

Hoisting the unconscious man onto his shoulder, he descends the stairs until he reaches the retractable section at the bottom.

It's rusted in place, and Derek decides that it's too dangerous to jump up and down on it to free it up.

He smiles to himself.

Derek throws the gray onto it, breaking it loose and causing the man to tumble down the falling stairs and onto the concrete sidewalk below.

Scooping him up, he dashes to the car and places him in the trunk before standing next to the driver side door and watching for Sarah and threats. He knows that bullets can rip through car bodies like paper, and chooses to remain outside and mobile, rather than inside and stationary.

Moments later, he sees Sarah moving toward the car from the fire escape with her shotgun in one hand and a computer case under her other arm.

He climbs into the driver's seat and starts the car. Sarah steps into the passenger side and places the computer case on the floor in front of her.

They have been able to enter and leave the area in broad daylight without being seen.

Derek eyes the computer cas as they drive away.

"You know, you really need to learn how to remove a hard drive."

"Would it have been as fast?"

Derek sighs.

"No."

"Then shut the hell up."

After few seconds, she looks at Derek.

"He's quiet. I didn't kill him, did I?"

Derek smiles.

"No, but I kicked him in the face a few times and threw him down some stairs."

"Alive then?"

"Yeah." he taps his Beretta, "But I'm not sure for how long."

Scene 229: Overtime

Friday April 11th, 2008

12:06pm Abandoned Warehouse

Derek and Sarah brought the injured gray inside as soon as Derek had made certain that no one was within.

They didn't bother to tie up the gray. He's not going anywhere with only one good leg.

Sarah has kept her distance and remained silent, obviously bothered by what she expects to unfold before her.

The now conscious gray clutches his wounded limb with Derek crouching next to him, Beretta in hand.

Derek speaks calmly.

"Just tell me why you were so chatty with a machine and I'll make the pain stop."

"Fuck you! I don't know anything!"

Derek sighs.

*BANG*

The man screams as Derek puts a bullet in his other leg.

"I've got 15 left. Would you like to talk now?"

"FUCK YOU!"

*BANG*

"Watch your mouth."

The gray continues screaming.

"What exactly are you doing for Skynet?"

He receives only screams.

*BANG*

The man screams louder.

"Shut the fuck up!"

*BANG*

*BANG*

Sarah taps his shoulder, and he walks a short distance away from the screaming man with her.

"Derek, I've heard that torture doesn't even work-"

"It works. I would know."

He immediately walks back to the gray. His screams have quieted.

"Now, where was I? I was asking you... oh yeah. What are you doing for Skynet?"

"I don't work for Skynet YOU STUPID FUCK!"

Derek shakes his head.

*BANG*

The gray resumes screaming.

"Hey, Sarah? How many does that make?"

He looks over his shoulder and sees that she's just standing there with her hand over her mouth.

Derek walks over to her and places his hands on her shoulders, speaking in a comforting tone.

"Sarah, go wait in the car. I'll be out soon. Go on, it's okay. Go on."

She slowly begins walking out, unable to take her eyes off of the gray.

'I've never seen her like this.' Derek thinks.

He looks back over at the gray, feeling nothing for him.

'Am I all right with this because he's a gray, or do I just keep telling myself that?'

'It's not like I do this to random people.'

He looks at his Beretta.

'Either way, I'm not done yet.'

He walks back to the gray.

"I think that you were about to crack. That sound about right?"

The gray looks at him, becoming weary from blood loss.

"Fuck you!"

"That wasn't very nice. Now was it?"

*BANG*

The gray screams.

"That really hurt my feelings, you know that?"

*BANG*

He screams louder.

"What are you doing for Skynet?"

"I'm not telling you."

*BANG*

"How 'bout now?"

The man just screams more.

"Maybe I shouldn't waste my time with your leg."

*BANG*

*BANG*

He puts two rounds into the grays left arm.

*BANG*

*BANG*

Then two into his right.

He has counted his shots, knowing that the weapon has only 3 more rounds, he reloads.

"There, now we're back to 16."

Derek hears a gunshot from outside.

"Sarah?!"

*BANG*

*BANG*

He puts two in the gray's head then sprints for the door.

Derek sees Sarah firing on a T-888 with her SPAS. She has blinded it, but its advance doesn't seem to be slowed.

"SARAH! GET AWAY FROM IT!"

Sarah sidesteps a lunge, but not because of Derek's warning.

Derek empties his Beretta into the machine's head and neck with no effect.

He sprints to the car and reaches for plastique. He picks up the one set to 30 seconds and drops it back in the bag, taking the other one.

"SARAH! GET IN THE CAR!"

He jumps in the car and starts it.

Sarah fires two rounds into the machine's right eye socket with zero effect.

She fires two rounds into the machine's knee as she backpedals.

Again, there is no effect, but the machine now seems confused by its blindness and she is able to reach the back seat of the car in time to get in.

Derek eases onto the gas to avoid simply spinning in place, and as the car gains speed, he starts the timer and drops the plastique.

"Stay down, Sarah!"

He ducks slightly, but watches the rear view mirror as the explosive detonates.

Much of the machine's body is obliterated in the blast, leaving a partial chest, arms and head.

Sarah sits up and looks at what remains.

Derek slows to a stop.

Sarah keeps her eyes on the machine as she grabs the second block of C-4.

"I'll check."

She steps out of the car and moves slowly toward the machine.

As she reaches it, she sees that the damage to the machine's chest is more severe than it had appeared from the car.

It's dead.

She isn't sure if there's any thermite and raises the explosive at Derek, silently asking if it should be used.

Derek waves, and she starts the timer, dropping the explosive onto the machine.

'The chip might hold useful information, but I'm not sure that I can trust you with it John.'

She walks back to the car and gets into the front seat.

Derek eyes the weapon in her hands and smiles.

"Riding shotgun, huh?"

She rolls her eyes.

"Do you have any idea how many times my son has said that?"

He frowns as he starts to drive.

"Just trying to lighten the mood."

She looks out the window for a moment.

"Don't tell John about this."

"If that hard drive is encrypted, he's the only one who can access it."

"Then we lie. We tell him that it's from another squad of Resistance fighters."

Derek looks at her for a moment, thinking about how his own parents would have felt if they'd seen him and Kyle dealing with machines every day. He also considers what Kyle would do.

"Sounds good, but he'll wonder where we've been."

"No he won't. We'll pick up something for him and Cameron to eat. They wouldn't expect us to worry about that if we'd just blown up a machine."

Scene 230: Suspicion

Friday April 11th, 2008

1:31pm John and Cameron's motel room

There's a knock at the door.

John steps out of the shower and wraps a towel around his waist, then picks up his M4 as he nears the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's your mother."

John sets down the rifle and opens the door, finding his mother standing there.

She hands him two styrofoam containers of take out.

"Oh, thanks."

Sarah notes her son's state of undress and narrows her eyes.

"Where's Cameron?"

"Oh, her? She stepped into the shower as soon as I stepped out."

"Really?"

"Yeah... Why?"

She shakes her head.

"Well, you know where I am. Gimme a call if you need anything."

"I will mom. Thanks again."

He closes the door as quickly as he can without being rude, dropping the food on a table as he hurries toward the bathroom.

He's disappointed to see her coming out just as he nears the door.

Several very cold minutes later, John leaves the bathroom.

He joins Cameron as they open the styrofoam containers.

"What are these?" Cameron asks, picking up a ball of battered meat.

"Fried scallops."

She holds up something from the other package.

"These?"

"Shrimp."

She looks at the decapod for a moment before tilting her head.

"They're cold."

John picks up the two piles of seafood and walks toward the microwave.

"I'll fix that."

"No, John, they are 3 degrees below ambient temperature."

He looks confused.

"What does that mean?"

"They have been artificially cooled."

"No, she just got back with them. They're fresh."

Cameron looks at the tiny, battered crustacean in her fingers.

"Yes they are. They have been intentionally refrigerated."

"What are you saying?"

"Your mother didn't go out to eat."

John makes a call on his cell, and his mother answers.

"Where did you really go?"

"I already know that isn't true."

"What do you mean?"

"No I wasn't."

"No, it was Cameron."

"Where were you?"

"Fine. I'll be right there."

He hangs up.

"Sorry, Cam. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"John, what's going on?"

He places his M4 on her lap.

"I don't have any idea."

***************************************************************************************


	14. Scenes 231 to 240

**Predaking50ae Scenes 231-240**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 231: Technologically Disinclined

Friday April 11th, 2008

1:40pm Motel parking lot

John walks toward room three, but a door opens before he gets there.

He's surprised to see his mother.

"Mom?"

Sarah walks away from the doorway and further into her room.

"Come here."

He follows her in and sees her stop next to a desk with a computer case and two thick binders.

"What's with the tower?" he says, gesturing to the case.

"I need you to take a look at what's on it."

John tries not to allow his amusement to show as he looks at the aluminum case.

'It's called paint.' he thinks.

"All right, I'll take a look."

He removes the fasteners from the back of the case, then slides off the side panel.

Sarah smiles.

"You really know what you're doing."

John smiles back.

'A monkey could do this.' he thinks.

He notices that this style of case is tools free.

"Oh." he says, unplugging the SATA and power cables and removing the hard drive.

"What?"

"Nothing, I had just expected to need a screw driver. So where exactly did you get this?"

"From a team of Resistance fighters."

John smiles faintly. He knows that his mother is the only person in the world who would take an entire case when the hard drive could be removed in under 20 seconds without tools.

"All right. Well, I'm going to head back- don't want the food to get _warm_, now do we?"

Sarah seems hurt.

"Well I'm sorry that it isn't still hot."

"No you aren't." he points at the freezer portion of her rooms refrigerator.

"Joh-"

"Don't lie to me. I've gotten that from you my whole life. What _really_ happened today?"

Sarah sighs, realizing that she hadn't given him enough credit.

"Derek and I hunted down a gray."

He can tell that she's hiding something.

"What _else_ happened?"

"We also ran into a triple-eight."

John turns angry.

"With Cameron the way that she is you want to lead one here?! She's dead if they find us!"

"Don't worry. We destroyed it."

John scowls.

"How stupid do you think I am? We don't have anything that can-"

"Derek has C-4."

John seems skeptical.

"Are you sure it was a machine?"

She furrows her brow.

"Yes."

"You saw metal?"

"John, I shot it in the face."

John lets out a sigh of relief.

She narrows her eyes.

"Why?"

He looks away for a moment.

"...Derek... blew some people up."

"Grays?"

"No. They were security. He just... went nuts."

Sarah remembers Derek's trancelike state when he nearly executed two cops in the tunnels beneath City Hall.

"John, he's nothing like your father."

"What?"

"I just want you to know that you can't get to know Kyle through Derek."

John looks down. Derek was nothing like his mother had described his father, but he had still felt that he might find Kyle in him.

"John, be careful around him."

He looks at her in confusion.

"You think that he might hurt me?"

Sarah shakes her head.

"Not intentionally, but you can't let your guard down."

Scene 232: Damn it Jim!

Friday April 11th, 2008

6:51pm A gray and white house - Living room

Derek sits in a dark corner of the room.

He quietly bounces his Beretta on his thigh while watching the front door.

Hearing a car enter the driveway, Derek adjusts his grip on the weapon and watches the door.

After several seconds James Ellison enters, unaware of Derek's presence.

Derek's voice is calm.

"We need to talk."

A startled Ellison nearly falls over an end table.

"What in God's name?! ...Derek?"

Derek stands and walks over to him, producing a photograph and speaking in a sarcastically friendly manner.

"Hey Jim. What do you know about this?"

It's the picture of Ellison showing Cromartie's body to a red haired woman.

Ellison knows that he can't lie at this point.

"I'm helping you stop those things."

Derek smiles.

"Oh yeah? How's that?"

Ellison has calmed, but doesn't know what to expect form Derek. He knows how it looks.

"The people I work for-" Derek cuts him off, but his tone remains friendly.

"Who do you work for?"

"...Catherine Weaver."

Derek furrows his brow.

"Who?"

"Her husband was killed by one of them. She's spent years trying to stop them."

Derek is unimpressed.

"I've spent years trying to stop them. Sarah has spent years trying to stop them. What has this 'Weaver' done?"

Ellison realizes that she hasn't really done anything to stop them.

"She hired me to find one and bring-"

Ellison is interrupted by the slide of Derek's Beretta hitting his face.

"You did this for money?!" he shouts while holding up the picture.

Ellison touches the side of his head then looks at his hand confirming blood. He shakes the dizziness from his head.

"No! I'm trying to do my part!"

Derek grabs Ellison's throat with his left hand and pushes him against the wall.

"You stupid son of a bitch! We're trying to stop the end of the world! You've undermined everything we've tried to do!"

"What?! She wants to stop those things!"

"Judgment Day comes closer with every single piece that survives! You gave her a whole damn machine!"

"She's on our side!"

Derek returns to his calm demeanor.

"Tell me where to find her."

"She has a little girl!"

Derek smirks and releases Ellison as he begins heading for the door.

"A lot of little girls lost their mothers in the war. I have a name. I don't need any more from you." he says without looking back.

"What are you going to do to her?"

Derek answers while reaching for the door handle.

"If she's a gray, then she dies. If not, well... she might die anyway."

"NO!" Ellison screams as he jumps Derek.

Being larger, Ellison appears to have the advantage.

Appearances can be deceiving, however, as Derek is not a career pencil pusher like Ellison.

He elbows Ellison in the ribs until his grip loosens, then spins around and delivers a crushing blow to Ellison's face with the muzzle of his Beretta.

As Derek tries to strike him again, Ellison grabs Derek's weapon hand. He should have grabbed the weapon itself.

Derek uses his other hand to grip the muzzle of his weapon and twists it from his own grip.

Rotating it in his hand, he moves it back near his hip pointed at Ellison's body.

Six shots ring out.

Ellison doesn't stop fighting for control of the weapon, and Derek fires four more times.

Ellison collapses to the floor.

In such a calm neighborhood, Derek knows that must leave immediately.

He rushes out the door with a name in mind.

Without looking back he crosses the street, and climbs into his car before speeding away.

Scene 233: Mincing words

Sunday November 8th, 2026

9:54pm TechCom HQ - General Connor's private quarters

John Connor sits across a chessboard from Allison Young

John looks at her sympathetically.

"How are you doing?"

She smiles at his concern.

"It was months ago. I'm fine now."

He watches her closely for a moment.

"Are you sure? That was quite a blast."

She chuckles.

"Yeah, I know. I was there remember?"

He smiles and moves his queen.

She frowns at him and moves it back.

"Don't do that." she says.

He feigns confusion.

"What?"

Allison is genuinely offended.

"You're letting me win. Don't."

John sighs and begins making the move he deliberately avoided.

"I wasn't letting you _win_, I was letting you _play_. Checkmate."

She's still upset about the previous move.

"Why would you do something like that? You don't think that I can beat you?"

He looks at her seriously.

"Allison, I've been playing this game for twice as long as you've been alive."

Allison crosses her arms.

"So you don't think that I'm smart enough?"

John laughs.

"Of course, but you need more experience. I believe that you are smart enough to learn from your mistakes without being punished." he gestures to her fallen king.

She regards him with suspicion for a moment.

"Fine. Just don't make me play for both of us, okay? I have enough trouble keeping up with you without needing to make sure that you don't throw the game."

"Okay Allison, but making intentional mistakes is part of the game. Don't jump to conclusions in the future."

Allison considers the number of games she's played against John without ever actually winning.

"Why don't you ever play against one of your machines? They're good with calculations."

John turns sorrowful.

"You're right, but chess isn't about the pieces or the moves- it's about empathy. It's about getting inside your opponent's head and predicting what they'll do. I've yet to meet a machine with the empathy required for an enjoyable game. Ironic, isn't it? They have been built to hunt us, yet possess so little empathy."

She looks at him in confusion, and he explains.

"Allison, predators- including ourselves -are almost always more empathetic than their prey. When anticipating the actions of another, empathy is more important than pure intelligence. _Empathy_ is why we are winning this war."

Allison smiles.

"I thought that we were winning because of _you_."

He looks down and shakes his head.

"I have many people under my command, and many have died for me to be here. It's unfair to give me so much credit."

"No one else gets your results."

John picks up his queen and looks it over.

"No one else had the chance to prepare for the machines before Judgment Day."

Everyone knows about Sarah Connor.

"How did she know about all of this?"

He sets the piece down and looks at her.

"I'm sorry Allison, but I can't tell you that."

She looks surprised.

"You don't know?"

"I do, but I can't tell you."

Her eyes widen.

"There's _pre-war_ stuff that's classified?"

John looks at the board.

"No. It's not classified. It's secret."

She furrows her brow.

"What do you mean?"

He smiles faintly.

"At present, I'm the only person who knows the exact answer to your question. It's imperative that it remains that way."

"I understand."

John walks over to a small bureau. When he returns, he hands Allison a bracelet.

"Take this. When the time comes, you'll get your answer."

Allison looks at the bracelet as she accepts it.

"What is it?"

"It's a pass."

She looks up at him.

"To what?"

"To my main base."

She's incredulous.

"This _is_ your main base."

John smiles.

"It won't be for much longer."

"...Are we going to be attacked?"

"Probably, but that has nothing to do with it. Please understand, I can't answer your questions now. I will at another time, but not now."

Allison looks at the bracelet.

"Thank you... for explaining, and for trusting me."

He turns grave.

"Don't mention it."

She smiles.

"I mean literally. Do not mention this to anyone. That bracelet will let you past a security system that hasn't even been completed yet- let alone installed. I've given it to you because I don't know when the move will take place. It will be fast, taking just a few hours. If you're on the surface... you'll be left behind."

"I won't tell anyone, sir."

"I know that. I trust you with my life." he checks the time, "It's after twenty-two hundred, Allison. You'd better get going or you'll be late for duty."

She sighs.

"You're right. I'll be back- I mean, if that's okay, sir."

John chuckles.

"Of course. I'm looking forward to it."

As she stands she gestures to the board.

"I'll be able to beat you eventually."

He smiles.

"I don't doubt that."

Scene 234: Rumors

Monday November 9th, 2026

8:00am TechCom HQ - Mess Hall

Sergeant Kyle Reese, First Lieutenant Derek Reese, and other soldiers are seated at a table.

Regulations against fraternization between officers and enlisted men are technically in place but are not enforced. Many groups of men and women fought for the Resistance before it became a formal military force, and telling groups of volunteers that they could no longer speak to their friends, family, or lovers was something which no one seemed willing to do. The harm caused by these bonds was nothing compared to how many would refuse to join simply to remain with their friends or loved ones.

Specialist Allison Young stands in the chow line.

In just over a year she has come within a single rank of leading her own fireteam.

Derek notices the patch on Allison's jumpsuit. He knows who she is from the rumors that surround her.

"Young already made Specialist?"

"She took out a tank." Kyle explains.

A soldier snorts.

"No, she just set the mines. Connor had to blow the tank 'cause she was balled up in the corner crying."

Kyle glares at him.

"Don't be an ass."

The soldier shrugs.

"I heard that she was just bawlin' her eyes out and he gave her a promotion 'cause he felt sorry for her."

"You're an asshole." Kyle says.

"That's the story."

Another man speaks up.

"I heard that she jumped a T-888 when it got close to Connor."

"That's what I heard, too." another says.

Kyle nods.

"He said she was holding onto it when it was hit. She got pretty banged up in the blast."

"I doubt that." the first soldier says.

Kyle smirks.

"What? You think Connor gives out promotions just-"

The man cuts him off as he turns to look at Allison.

"For a piece of ass? I would."

Derek scowls at the soldier.

"That would hurt the Resistance. Why don't you think before you open your mouth?"

"Like she did? Nah, I have trouble staying on my knees for that long."

"That's too far." Kyle says.

"Is it? Some of the guys have seen her leaving his room late at night."

Kyle smirks.

"If it were what you're thinking, then shouldn't she be _entering_ his room late at night?"

Another soldier speaks up.

"He has a point, though. Some say that he's been giving her gifts."

"Maybe they're just friends." Derek says.

The first soldier watches Allison as she bends over to pick up a dropped utensil.

"Yeah, maybe he says please before he orders her to polish his 'brass'."

Kyle slams his fist on the table.

"That's enough!"

Derek looks at his brother for a moment. Although the two of them aren't this disrespectful, they had long ago gotten used to hearing comments like these.

"What's so special about her?"

Kyle realizes that he doesn't know himself.

"I have no idea. Somehow she's earned Connor's respect."

Derek furrows his brow at him.

"What about you and Connor?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why does he still talk to you? You're just a lowly sergeant and he's the only five star general in TechCom."

"Thanks a lot Derek. You always know just how to brighten my day... You fuckin' prick."

Kyle leaves the other soldiers expecting a fight as he glares at his brother.

Suddenly he flashes Derek a smile, and the two begin laughing.

"You had me there for a second!"

Scene 235: The Good Die, Young

Thursday November 12th, 2026

2:12am Wasteland - A two day march from TechCom HQ

Specialist Allison Young and her platoon have been sent on a long range recon mission.

They walk along the edge of what used to be a city street. It is now flanked by ruins which stand a fraction of their original height. Nothing but the brick, concrete, and steel portions remain. Everything else was destroyed in the fires of Judgment Day.

The soldiers stay close enough to the ruins to take cover at a moments notice, but far enough that concealed machines or explosions from plasma striking the walls can't reach them.

The platoon doesn't know it, but they are searching a possible location for Skynet's time displacement equipment.

Allison feels the plasma carbine in her hands. After John saw first hand that her plasma rifle was too large for her, he had seen to it that she was issued a more manageable weapon. That alone had saved her life several times.

'Thanks John. You're always looking out for me.'

'Maybe someday I'll be able to return the favor.'

She snorts at her own vanity.

'Yeah right. Maybe when you were a kid you could have used my help, but not now.'

She remembers the bracelet.

'If no one could enter HQ without one of these, we'd need hundreds or even thousands of them.'

'Half of your troops would need one... Where will this _really_ let me go?'

'I know you don't lie, but you don't always tell the truth. What did you leave out?'

'I don't have the rank to be in your inner circle...'

'Maybe this will give me access to classified files? No. I don't have the rank for that either.'

'It must be a mission. That's the only way I'd find out something so far above my rank.'

"Specialist?"

'Wait... you said it's not classified, so this isn't about rank. Where could I go? Where could I go, where I'd need to know something that you said no one but you knows? This doesn't make any sense. You told me that no one else knows, _and_ that it has to stay that way. How can you tell me if I can't know?'

"Specialist?!" her squad leader shouts.

Allison is snapped back to reality.

"Corporal?"

"Nice of you to join us. The Lieutenant wants mines there." he points to where fallen ruins have narrowed the road.

"Yes Corporal."

She sets two mines and begins moving back to her squad.

Something catches her eye.

Turning toward it, she raises her carbine and looks through the scope.

Firing without hesitation, everyone her platoon scrambles to take defensive positions as her squad mates move to support her.

Her squad reaches her side and they see nothing.

"Specialist, what the fuck was that?" the squad leader asks.

"T-600 in standby, Corporal."

Weapon still shouldered, she walks into the ruins to confirm the kill.

The corporal follows and notices the machine's most distinctive feature- its glowing red neck where its head used to be.

"Good initiative Specialist."

"Thank you Corporal."

He motions for his squad to search the area.

"Must have been a rogue, sir" one of the PFC's reports after finding nothing.

"Don't call me 'sir', Private. I work for a living."

"Uh, yes Corporal." he says.

Allison hides her amusement. As a PFC, she had also made the mistake of referring to an enlisted man as 'sir'.

Several minutes later the platoon has finished scouring the area.

"Whatever Connor wants, it isn't here sir." the platoon Sergeant tells the Lieutenant.

"All right Sergeant. We're going home."

As the Sergeant begins to give the order, high yield plasma strikes.

Allison and her platoon mates are showered with gore as the Lieutenant, platoon Sergeant, and an entire fireteam begin raining down on them.

"OGRE!" someone shouts as they spot an H-K Tank smashing through the ruins.

The remaining 4 fireteams run for cover with no leadership.

They all know, however, that there is no cover from a centaur. Its weapons don't run out of ammunition, and they can blast through almost anything in seconds.

Allison isn't the only survivor with explosives.

A member of another fireteam pulls a satchel charge out and hands off the detonator to one of his squad mates.

Before his friend can ask questions, the soldier begins running for the tank.

'No! No one's fast enough for that!' Allison thinks as she watches him try to make it to the machine.

He's struck before he gets close enough.

"We don't have anything that can take it down!" her squad leader shouts over the weapons fire.

Allison reaches for her remaining two mines.

"These'll do it, but we have to draw it closer!"

The Corporal looks at the mines for a moment.

"Do it!"

He turns to the other members of his fireteam.

"All right boys, lets make it happen!"

Allison throws the mines as hard and as far as she can.

The moment that they land, her squad mates run into the street and begin to run around the ruin Allison hides in.

The H-K's fire reaches them, and through broken walls of the ruin, Allison sees them die.

She smells blood and charred flesh as unrecognizable chunks of meat land all around her.

She sheds tears for them, but she doesn't make a sound. The machine will investigate the source of the fleeing soldiers when it runs out of targets, but if it knows that she's there it will destroy the structure from afar without nearing the mines.

There's nothing that she can do. Only her mines can stop it. She hears the last members of her platoon scream as they see their deaths coming.

She holds her detonator as the machine slowly inches forward, searching for survivors.

Allison sees through the crumbling wall that one of her squad mates is still alive.

There is just enough of him left to suffer.

The humane thing to do would be to shoot him, but if she does the tank will find her.

She closes her eyes so that she won't have to look at him anymore.

When she hears the machine get close enough, she holds the detonator close to her chest.

"There's no place like home." she whispers.

*click* *click* *click*

The blast shakes the ground as all four of the mines detonate. Mercifully, the ones planted earlier are close enough to kill the dying soldier.

She sprints out of the ruin as the blast causes it to start coming down, and she sees that the ogre has been destroyed.

Allison looks around for any sign of survivors. She expects someone to come out of the ruins. No one does.

"Is anyone out there?!"

She walks along the edge of the street, counting the scattered remains.

"Did anyone else make it?!"

Allison is getting closer and closer to accounting for every member of her platoon.

She screams at the top of her lungs.

"IS THERE ANYONE LEFT?!"

The only answer comes from the crumbling of the ruins and the crackling of the burning H-K.

A red mark and a rifle warped by intense heat accounts for the last of her fellow soldiers.

Allison collapses to her knees sobbing when reality hits her.

"They're all... they're all gone... all of them..."

She looks at where the platoon leader and the sergeant had been standing minutes earlier.

"They're all dead... every single one... it killed them all..."

Looking back at the burning H-K, her grief slowly turns to rage as she thinks of what Skynet did to her parents, to her platoon, and what it's trying to do to everyone.

"No! We're not all dead! Not yet!"

She stands.

"You haven't killed all of us yet!"

She grasps her carbine and takes one last look at her fallen brethren, before she begins to run in the direction of TechCom HQ.

Scene 236: Nothing Much

Saturday April 12th, 2008

4:19am John and Cameron's motel room

John and Cameron are sitting against the headboard of the bed.

John has his laptop connected to the gray's hard drive.

Suddenly, John slams his laptop closed.

"What is it, John?"

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing."

She places a hand on his shoulder.

"John, I-"

He knocks her arm away with his elbow.

"Do you need to scan me every time I open my mouth?"

She moves away from him slightly.

"I can't scan you with that hand..."

Even realizing what he has done, he keeps his distance.

"I'm sorry. I thought that you were only touching me so you could scan me."

Cameron looks down.

"Is that why you think I stay close to you for?"

"Of course not! I just want you to trust me once in a while."

"What did you find?"

"Nothing. The hard drive was blank."

"You didn't spend the night decrypting nothing."

John disconnects the hard drive from his laptop and carries it to the door.

"I'm telling you that there's nothing on it."

He leaves the motel room without even putting his shoes on.

A short time later he returns without the hard drive.

Cameron hasn't moved since he left, and she says nothing as he returns.

John walks toward her.

Cameron is hurt but smiles anyway, anticipating an apology and an explanation.

Her smile vanishes as he stops short of her and picks up his M4 from beside her on the bed, making sure that it's loaded.

John sets it down even closer to Cameron than it had been before.

Retrieving magazines and grenades he folds several of each into articles of clothing and places them around the motel room, glancing back at Cameron to be certain that she is watching where he's putting them.

He picks up Cameron's Remington 870 and checks it, then places it where he can reach it- he wants Cameron to have the best weapon, and he'll take the left over shotgun.

He does the same with his Glock 17, but places it between the mattress and the headboard.

"John, what are you so afraid of?"

As he shuts off the lights and climbs into bed, she can see that he is keeping his distance from her.

"Nothing. This is just a stupid human thing. Don't worry about it."

Cameron receives no protest when she chooses to sit in a chair rather than remain by his side while he treats her this way.

Scene 237: Domestic Assault

Saturday April 12th, 2008

11:34am John and Cameron's motel room

Waking slowly, John feels comfortable and content knowing that Cameron is nearby.

Then he remembers the hard drive and how he acted after decrypting part of it.

"Cameron?"

Looking around the room, he sees her sitting in a chair by the window.

He knows that she has every right to be upset, but tries to justify lying rather than telling her what he's found.

"Cameron, how many times have you lied to me? How many times have you avoided telling me something?"

She ignores him and continues looking out the window.

"Fine. Have it your way."

She speaks quietly, still staring out the window.

"This is _your_ way."

The subtle emphasis cuts him deeply.

"You'd do the same. You're just better at lying."

She looks at the M4 in her hands.

"You're putting me in danger by not telling me why I need this."

John knows that she is using his emotions against him, but he also knows that it's working.

"Grays might know where we are."

She looks at him in annoyance.

"I already knew that."

John had hoped that it would be enough.

"I also know where _they_ are."

Cameron furrows her brow.

"Then I will kill them before they find us."

John walks over to her and kneels in front of her. He takes her left hand with both of his, ensuring that he's being scanned.

"You can't."

Her confusion increases. Even with her damaged arms she can handle humans.

"They are only human."

John realizes that she doesn't understand what he had meant.

"Cameron, I know where _all_ of the grays are."

"Then we will kill all of them before they find us."

"We can't do that."

"Why not?"

He looks down for a moment, unsure of how to convince her that force won't work.

"They live here. All over the city. They're allowed to have families and homes as long as they work for Skynet. It's sent back dozens of them to 2008 already, and there are hundreds more here."

Her eyes dart from his hands to his face repeatedly.

"How are you defeating my scan?"

John looks confused.

"I can't that I know of."

She pulls her hand away.

"Skynet doesn't allow such autonomy."

"It's tracking them with implants. When one of them doesn't do as they're told, or if they go somewhere without permission, a triple-eight or other grays will show up and kill them and their family."

Cameron quickly calculates that without any kind of rest- other than refueling a vehicle -it would take her approximately 42 days to kill as many as 500 grays in their homes in Los Angeles.

She smiles sweetly and innocently at John.

"Don't worry, I can still kill all of them."

He can't help but chuckle at the contrast between her words and demeanor.

"Maybe, but I'm not going to let you risk yourself."

Cameron tilts her head.

"John, we have to kill them."

"We can't Cameron. There are too many and they're too spread out."

She puts her hand on his shoulder.

"Listen to me, they will hunt us until they kill us. John, we don't have a choice."

"I won't let you kill yourself fighting hundreds of them. Besides, they can't all just be foot soldiers and spies. Some of them must be important enough to be protected by machines."

"John, this is the only way."

He stands quickly, causing her hand to slip from his shoulder.

"No! I'll kill them all myself before I let you kill yourself!"

She sets the M4 on the floor by the chair and stands as well, this time placing a hand on each of his shoulders.

"John, you're human. You can't kill all of them by yourself."

John cups her hyper-alloy cheek and smiles into her eyes.

His features suddenly darken, and Cameron is afraid that he's angry with her.

He peels his hand away from her face and glares at the exposed endoskeleton it had covered.

Then his glare moves to her slightly misshapen right forearm, before shifting to her damaged left shoulder.

She begins to wonder if he will strike her.

Finally he glares at her endoskeletal left leg, as if hoping to melt it with pure hatred.

Cameron fears that she has said or done something terrible.

He turns his back on her.

His tone carries all of the contempt that she had seen in his eyes.

"Yes I can. I'll kill them all."

He walks away from her without looking back.

"John, they'll kill you! Even uninjured you couldn't kill so many!"

He picks up his laptop and answers with no less hatred in his voice.

"I can kill every single one of those motherfuckers with this."

Cameron tilts her head, but he has his back to her.

After several seconds, he quietly answers her unasked question with sorrow and guilt instead of hatred.

"They're hunted down and killed when their implants move without orders. I can tell the system that they've _all_ moved. At first, grays will kill other grays. Then, the machines will start killing everyone. They'll try to run, but the machines can track them anywhere in the world, and they will not stop."

"I understand."

John snorts and turns to face her.

"I just said that I'm going to murder hundreds of _families_ with the press of a button! That's what Skynet does!"

She looks down.

"But you're going to save millions of families."

"And Skynet will prevent a lot of deaths by killing all of us! That doesn't justify it!"

She knows what he's referring to. The lowest possible number of human deaths is the number up until this point plus the number currently alive. By killing everyone, Skynet will technically prevent trillions of human deaths- far from a humanitarian endeavor.

"John, this isn't the same."

John scowls.

"Yes it is. It's murder. You don't feel anything for them, but I do. I do... and I'm going to kill them anyway."

"They work for Skynet."

"I feel nothing for _them_, Cameron. It's their families. How many kids don't know that their mother or father is trying to kill everyone?"

Cameron moves over to him.

"John? This will... change you... won't it?"

He looks at the laptop in his hands.

"...I've killed people before."

Her voice is soft.

"Let me do this."

He continues staring at the laptop.

"No Cameron. They deserve..."

She tilts her head.

"What do they deserve?"

He swallows and looks at her with watery eyes.

"They deserve to be mourned."

He feels her metal palm slam into the side of his face, knocking him to the floor.

"You would do this to punish yourself?! What about me?! What about when you aren't my John anymore?!"

He never imagined that he could be hit this hard, and certainly not by Cameron.

His cheekbone is broken, the skin covering it has split, and the inside of his cheek has been cut against his molars.

In the spinning and darkening room, John knows that he deserved it.

"Cameron-"

"I won't let you do this to yourself!"

He intends to stand but finds that his balance won't even allow him to remain on his hands and knees.

"You have-."

"No! I won't let you do this to _me_, either!"

He reaches for her foot.

"Listen to me Camer-"

"No, you listen to me!"

"Cameron, you have-"

"Stop it John!"

She won't let him finish a sentence, so he drags himself to the bed and sits against it with the left side of his face concealed from the door to his right.

"Okay, Cam. Just sit here with me."

She doesn't understand but sits beside him anyway.

John is uncertain if he will remain conscious.

"If I pass out, you need to explain this quickly."

As she tilts her head, the door flies open.

Sarah enters with her SPAS, but lowers the weapon when she sees the two of them sitting together.

"I heard shouting. Is everything okay?"

"We're fine, mom. Put the gun down."

John whispers to Cameron, and she moves to his left side. John is now between her and his mother.

His mother knows that something isn't right.

"John, what's wrong?"

"Put the gun down and we'll talk."

"Did she do something to you? Did she hurt you?"

"You know that she'd never hurt me."

"Then what happened to you?"

As the daze finally begins to wear off, he is able to think of a convincing lie.

"I accidently took too much morphine."

Sarah knows that he isn't even supposed to be on morphine. She also knows that an overdose can be lethal.

She rushes over to him and drops her shotgun on the way.

Reaching her son she moves her hands toward his face, intending to check his pupils.

His hands clamp down on her wrists as hard as he can, and he keeps his face turned away from her.

"Mom, listen to me. She didn't do anything wrong."

She rips her hands from from his grasp.

"What did she do?!"

"She didn't-"

"I hit him." Cameron says.

"What?!"

"Mom, it wasn't-"

Sarah turns his head so that she can see the side that he's been hiding.

His eye is already swelling shut, blood is running from near his cheekbone, and the entire side of his face is bruised and swollen.

Sarah runs for her shotgun, and whirls around.

John has recovered enough that he is able to stand unsteadily and has kept himself between Cameron and his mother.

"Mom, she was protecting me! You would have done it!"

"Get away from her, John!"

John looks around the room.

"Cameron, stay behind me."

Still facing his mother, he moves to his right until he and Cameron are opposite the bed from Sarah.

Sarah watches for an opening.

John doesn't take his eyes off of his mother as he addresses Cameron.

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes John."

"Lay on the floor, and go into standby."

"But Joh-"

"Cameron, if you love me, you'll do this."

"John... okay."

She sits on the floor, then reclines, then her world goes dark.

Scene 238: Ice Queen

Saturday April 12th, 2008

12:04pm John and Cameron's motel room

Cameron begins lays on the floor as John shakes her.

Cameron sees the last 15 seconds of her life play in real time as her system reboots.

After the fifteen seconds pass, she sees John's concerned and damaged face.

"John, I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

He laughs.

"I'm sure I deserved it."

Her tone is remorseful

"No you didn't. I've damaged you. I've caused you pain."

She doesn't sit up, so he leans the rest of the way down intending to hug her.

As the uninjured right side of his face passes hers, an iron grip closes on his shirt and holds him back.

"John, what did you do?"

"Mom wanted to destroy you, but I convinced her that everything was fine."

She looks at his right temple.

"How did you do that?"

"Don't worry about it, Cam. We negotiated. That's all."

Compensating for his emotional state, her scan says that he is telling the truth. However, she knows what he has done.

"John, I can see the mark on the side of your head."

He looks confused, then brushes his temple and sees eleven day old powder residue. His Glock 17 had not been cleaned since it was last used, and the barrel had left a black ring on his temple.

"I'm sorry Cameron. I knew that she wouldn't listen to reason."

"You think that putting a gun to your own head is reasonable?"

John leans back and sits.

"I think that it worked. Besides, my finger was outside of the trigger guard."

She gently squeezes his leg and says nothing.

"Why do you have to scan me whenever I try to make you feel better?"

"I do it because I want the truth."

John closes his eyes and takes a deep beath, exhaling slowly before looking at her.

"You want honesty? Fine. Not only was my finger was on the trigger, I also took up the slack."

John picks up his Glock. In on motion, he releases the magazine and locks back the slide before using his finger to make sure that the chamber is clear.

Hitting the slide stop lever, the slide slams forward and he begins applying pressure to the trigger so that she can see it.

"Cameron, I pulled the trigger to about... there."

He feels a sharp pain in his thigh as Cameron pinches him, and the Glock's striker falls on an empty chamber.

She looks at him with disappointment, but says nothing.

John's mother had taught him the dangers of placing his finger on the trigger when he was not prepared to fire. Being startled may cause the trigger finger to spasm, discharging the weapon.

"Cam, I already knew that. That's part of why it worked. My mom knew that even if I were bluffing, the noise from her shotgun would have caused me to fire."

She takes the gun and reloads it, but does not return it to him.

"You shouldn't bluff with a loaded weapon."

John looks away.

"She's my mother. She's as good at reading me as you are. Probably better. She's just nice enough to let me _think_ that I've fooled her." he taps his head "She knows what goes on in here-" then pats the bed "-and on here. Why do you think she moved to the room next door?"

Her disappointment increases and John begins to wonder if she'll ever forgive him.

"You weren't bluffing?"

John closes his eyes, fighting the pain of imagining his own mother being the one to take his Cameron away.

"If I didn't come out on top, you and I would both have been dead anyway."

She looks at the firearm in her hand.

"I don't know if I can trust you with a weapon anymore."

John sits quietly for a moment then touches his face and looks at her.

"Why did you hit me?"

She's surprised, then concerned.

"I'm sorry, John. I swear I didn't mean to hit you so hard."

"I forgive you, now can you please tell me what happened."

Cameron quickly stands and holds a hand out to him.

"You have a mild traumatic brain injury."

John smiles and takes her hand allowing her to help him to his feet.

"That sounds like an oxymoron. It's easier to call it a concussion." his hand goes to his forehead, "Whoa."

Her concern and guilt increases.

"What is it?"

John chuckles as he answers her.

"The room is moving a little- that's _my_ HUD saying 'equilibrium compromised: sit the hell down'."

She frowns.

"John, this isn't funny. You could have brain damage because of me."

"I don't have brain damage. I didn't pass out. And yes, it is funny."

"You only think that because I knocked some sense out of you."

John nearly doubles over laughing.

She continues frowning.

"John, that wasn't a joke."

She pulls back the covers on the bed, then picks him up and places him on it before removing his excess clothing.

She walks over to the bag of clothes and picks up her hooded sweatshirt. Putting it on and closing the hood, she places her right hand in her pocket as she walks out the door.

"Cameron, don't go!"

She stops and and smiles over her shoulder at him.

"I'll be back."

Minutes later, she returns with a bag of ice and several cans of soda from a vending machine.

John has noticed that his laptop is missing, and deduces that Cameron had snuck it out when she left.

"Why did you take my laptop?"

She begins to put some of the ice into a smaller bag.

"Your amnesia will pass. Sarah no longer intends to kill me."

John remembers not only holding a gun to his head, but also some of the things that he had said to his mother.

"You spoke to her?"

"Yes, she thanked me."

Cameron puts the rest of the ice into the freezer and all but one of the sodas into the refrigerator.

John smiles at her.

"Cam, it's no fun to drink alone."

She opens the refrigerator and takes one for herself, then walks toward the bed.

He expects her to hand him the ice pack, instead she lays beside him and holds it against his face with her endoskeletal hand.

She looks as if she is about to cry.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause you so much pain."

He places his hand on the back of her head, his splayed fingers going through her hair as he pulls her in and kisses her.

"Cameron, I'm feeling many things right now, but pain isn't one of them."

It doesn't cheer her up.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better. I know that you're in pain."

John smiles.

"Do I _look_ like I'm in pain?"

Cameron thinks for a moment before giving him a mischievous smile that he's only seen once before.

"Not yet." she says, removing a piece of ice from the bag and popping it into her mouth.

John grins, thinking that he knows what's next. Instead, she begins to disappear beneath the covers. He stops her. He no longer remembers the events leading up to his encounter with his mother, but doesn't believe for a second that Cameron would have struck him unless it was necessary.

"Cam, you don't owe me anything."

She leans in and they pass the ice back and forth a few times, before she pulls away and smiles.

"We'll _both_ feel better about today... after I reduce the swelling."

Slipping beneath the blankets, he recoils as her ice cold endoskeletal hand comes to rest on his thigh.

Anticipation causes him to forget about the pain in his face.

He feels hot breath, then he feels both the heat and the cold.

"Oh fuck!"

Both disappear, and Cameron's tone is playful.

"Be quiet. I don't think you want your mother coming through that door right now."

Scene 239: Taking a Punch

6:59pm Derek's motel room

There's a knock at the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me." his nephew's voice answers.

Derek walks over and opens the door and lets John in.

He's surprised by his nephew's appearance.

"Jesus, she really fucked you up."

"She did me a favor. Where's the hard drive?"

"Uh-uh, you aren't getting it back."

John shakes his head, realizing that either Cameron or his mother has spoken to Derek.

"_That_ isn't why I want it. I won't do that to Cameron."

His uncle looks at him with disapproval.

"What about your mother?"

John ignores him.

"The satellite the grays are being tracked with is privately owned. I need to find out _who_ owns it."

Derek smiles.

"That's a nice story."

John tilts his head.

"You don't believe me?"

"I've told a few of them myself."

John snorts.

"That's because you don't know what you're talking about. I bet that you don't even know the difference between a program, and a virus!"

"Of course I do-"

"A virus is a program, Derek!"

Derek sighs, wondering if he'll ever win an argument against his nephew.

"I'm still not giving it back. I'll leave it up to your mother."

"She's computer illiterate! She thinks they're typewriters with pretty lights!"

Derek grabs John's shirt and pushes him against the wall.

"Hey! That's no way to talk about your mother! Not everyone is lucky enough to still have theirs!"

Anger flashes momentarily in John's eyes followed by resignation, and he looks down.

"You're right. I should show her more respect."

Derek releases him.

"You can start by not keeping her up all night."

John furrows his brow.

"What are you talking about?"

"You and that plaything of yours."

John scowls.

"She's not my plaything!"

Derek pokes John's swollen cheek.

"That's right, she's not a toy! She's dangerous!"

John seems prepared to attack his uncle.

"She isn't dangerous!"

Derek smirks.

"Your face proves otherwise."

"It was for my own good!"

His mother's voice comes from behind him.

"You really believe that..."

John turns to face her.

"So do you, mom! I know you do! You thanked her!"

Sarah is incredulous.

"Do you have brain damage?! You think I'd thank her for hitting you!"

"You _did_ thank her!"

Sarah moves closer and lowers her voice. They've already made far too much noise.

"Listen to me, I thanked her for stopping you from killing people. She didn't have to hit you to do that."

The motion of his jaw and the increase in blood pressure from arguing causes the throbbing pain in his face and head to return worse than ever. There's only one person who is ever able to make his pain go away.

Derek speaks up.

"'_She_' isn't what you think 'she' is. Have you looked in a mirror lately, _pretty boy_?"

"I don't care. It's not her fault that she's a cyborg."

His mother grabs his shoulder and turns him toward her.

"I know how you feel about her but she isn't human. She's dangerous."

John glares at his mother through the pain.

"That's how you feel about Derek, too."

Derek assumes that he's talking about something she had said shortly after rescuing him from police custody.

"John, we're worried about you. You said that this one wouldn't be the machine that kills you. Look at the condition you're in. It came close."

Sarah speaks again.

"Listen to us. We're just trying to help you. I want you to be safe... that might mean keeping you away from Cameron."

John stops defending himself or Cameron. He just lets the two of them lay into him. The sooner he gets it over with, the sooner he can return to her, and the sooner the pain will stop.

Scene 240: Smooth Criminal

Sunday April 13th, 2008

3:24am John and Cameron's motel room

Cameron lays motionless. She's in standby.

John has just finished dressing and packing.

'She feels so bad about hurting me... There's no way that she'd have agreed to go into standby other than guilt.'

He smiles at the sight of her resting peacefully. Smiling causes pain, but he doesn't notice as he stares at her.

'She's so perfect.'

Moving over to her, he brushes a few strands of her hair from her face.

John leaves the room and sets a duffel bag near Derek's room as he walks to the motel's reception area.

He greets the man working there.

Seeing John's face, the man's eyes widen momentarily.

"What happened to you?"

He thinks of an answer and is barely able to suppress his smile. The game hasn't even started and he has already won.

"The walkway is uneven near my room... I tripped yesterday."

The man quickly becomes overly polite and generous, fearing a lawsuit. John declines additional programming on his television, a larger room at no extra cost, as well as a free extra night.

"I just need an extra key to room three and to room twenty-one."

The man quickly glances at his book.

"What's your name, son?"

John's ID is unnecessary, but he shows it anyway in order to make his story more convincing- mainly by making himself appear innocent and clueless.

"John Lyman."

The man sees John Lyman for one room, and Sarah Lyman for the other.

"Well... here's one to room three, but I'm sorry. I can't give you a key to room twenty-one."

John fakes a pained grunt, and places his hand on his injured cheek.

"That's okay. I'll tell my mom that she has to come get it herself. She's pretty upset right now, though."

The man seizes the easy way out- the one that John has herded him toward all along.

"Uh... no no, that's all right. Er, I don't want to inconvenience her. Here's a key for your mother."

'Checkmate'

John smiles.

"Thank you very much, sir."

"Oh no, thank _you_. Oh, and enjoy your stay!"

Key in hand, he reaches Derek's room and opens the door quietly. He had intended to borrow his uncle's lock picks in order to get into his mother's room, by doesn't need them now.

Having snuck into and out of many places during his childhood, he knows that he will not even wake his uncle or mother.

John takes a moment to glance around the room with a very dim flashlight, careful not to point it at Derek.

'If I were a paranoid war veteran where would I hide something important?'

He smirks.

'No, if I were a _detached_ and _nihilistic_ war vet, I wouldn't see it as important.'

Noticing the binders of intel, he walks over and opens one and closes it in disappointment.

'This is nothing compared to what's on that drive- which is right where I expected.'

It was simply placed with the binders. Treated as just another piece of intelligence.

He quietly leaves the room and places the hard drive in his duffel bag.

Entering his mother's room with the duffel bag, he's far more nervous. He knows that he won't wake her, but he's worried that her concern for him will cause her to wake on her own during the night. He also has no idea how long it will take him to find his laptop.

'She knows me. She would expect this. Where would she hide it? Where wouldn't I look?'

John scans the room.

'No, not looking isn't good enough. She's too smart for that. What place would I _avoid_?'

He stares at her as if she might tell him where it is.

She moves in her sleep, and John realizes that his mother is wearing only a bra above her waist.

He quickly covers his eyes and turns away.

'I _really_ didn't want to see that.'

John notices his mother's bag of clothing and smirks.

'You never give me enough credit. I'm smarter than you think I am.'

Searching the bag, sure enough, the laptop is buried in undergarments.

Placing the laptop in his bag, he turns toward his mother.

'Now for the hard part.'

Setting the bag near her bed, he looks underneath it and sees two large bags.

'Damn it. Which is the right one.'

He gently prods one of them, finding metal. He doesn't want guns, he wants money, and slowly begins pulling the other bag out.

Moving the bag slowly enough to remain silent takes almost all of the patience that any human could hope to achieve.

After nearly two minutes, the bag is where he can open it.

Grasping the zipper, he takes another thirty seconds to unzip it enough to transfer some of its contents his bag.

He takes 25 bundles of money. Even if they are ten dollar notes, he will have $25,000- but he knows that the only bills his mother had given him at the mall were hundreds.

Closing the flap on the bag of money, he slowly begins to slide it back under the bed. He stays calm and listens to his mother's breathing to make sure that she is still sleeping. He only moves it far enough under the bed that it will not raise suspicion until someone actually looks for it.

Carefully, he lifts his duffel bag and moves to her leather jacket. Checking the pockets, he finds a key to the car.

As he reaches the door, he holds his breath and closes his eyes while turning the knob.

Even stepping outside and closing the door behind himself, he continues to hold his breath until he is several steps away.

Returning to his room, he picks up everything- including the sodas from the refrigerator -and carries all of it into the parking lot, and loads it into the blue car.

Hopping in and starting it, he finds that it is quieter than expected.

No longer fearing that the engine would wake his mother, he parks the car next to his motel room and leaves it running with the rear passenger side door open.

'You won't separate us.'

He walks into his room without closing the door behind himself, and looks at Cameron's still form. The sight does not bring a smile to his face this time.

John doesn't even know if she can be moved without waking, and fifteen seconds isn't enough time to put her into the car.

"Please Cam, please don't wake up." he whispers to her.

Pulling the covers off of her, he lifts her as slowly as he can. Without the injury to his face as a distraction, he wonders if the pain from his gunshot wound and related surgery would be too great for him to move her at all.

He reaches the car, unsure if she's waking up or not, and lays her down in the back seat and slowly shuts the car door.

After closing the door to the motel room as well, he gets into the driver's seat and begins to drive away slowly.

***************************************************************************************


	15. Scenes 241 to 250

**Predaking50ae Scenes 241-250**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 241: Cyborg-napping

Sunday April 13th, 2008

4:51am Blue car - An LA freeway

John drives cautiously.

Cameron lays in the backseat.

The car hits a pothole.

'Damn it.'

As much as he loves and trusts her, he suspects that waking suddenly in the backseat of a car she may attack her kidnapper before bothering to identify him.

He turns on the inside light and begins glancing back repeatedly.

After fifteen seconds, she doesn't move.

'That was close.'

Another ten minutes of driving, and he's far enough away that he thinks he'll be safe from his mother.

Leaving the freeway, he begins searching for another motel. He can't rent an apartment or a house until Cameron can blend in.

'Three more days and things will be back to normal.'

He smiles as he remembers that his mother and uncle are miles away.

'_Better_ than normal.'

Finding a motel, he parks the car in a darkened section of the lot and takes one last look at her.

'I'm not going back. I hope that you can understand.'

Once he has a room- under an assumed name -he moves the car near it and intends to carry Cameron inside.

"Don't wake up until we're inside, okay?" he whispers.

With effort, he picks her up and rushes into the room. He knows just how bad it looks- he's carrying a nude and unconscious young girl into a cheap motel room. He fears putting her at risk by attracting attention, as well as what she might do to the police were they to show up and attempt to rescue her.

Setting her on the bed quickly, he is gentle but not as concerned with waking her.

Quickly, he moves the blankets over her.

'Her cellphone... I didn't shut it off.'

He realizes that he is going to have to find it and deactivate it, then move her again since this will be the last known location of the phone.

Rummaging through the bags, he finds her cellphone in the pocket of a pair of pants. Pulling it out, he is relieved to find that it is already off.

John quickly picks up as much as he can carry, and heads into the room.

Surprisingly, she is still out.

'What if there's something wrong with her?'

He sets the bags down, and heads back out for more.

'No, that's impossible. What are the odds that something would go wrong on the very day that I pull something like this?'

Carrying the last of their things inside, he retrieves his M4 and pulls back the blankets covering Cameron.

He lays the weapon gently on her bare chest, and places her hand on it, before covering her back up.

'But... this is the first time she's gone into standby since I fixed her...'

'No, I can't think like that.'

John sets her room key on the night stand and heads out the door, locking it behind himself.

Scene 242: That Stuff Will Kill You

Sunday April 13th, 2008

7:02am John and Cameron's new motel room - Miles from Sarah and Derek

Cameron sees the last 15 seconds of her life playing in real time.

The memory is good.

John lays behind her with his arms around her.

"Okay, John. If that's what you want."

"I like having you sleep beside me."

"I don't sleep."

She feels his lips on the nape of her neck.

"Well, I still like it."

The memory ends.

Cameron opens her eyes, seeing John smile down at her.

She ignores the alert on her HUD that organic material is burning nearby, recognizing the smell as cooking beef.

John proudly holds out a plate- a real plate, not a paper one -with a large and slightly bloody steak on it that has been cut into bite sized cubes.

"How 'bout rare? After the raw eggs, I thought that you might prefer it this way."

As she sits up and scans the room, the covers fall from her bare chest. She accesses the records of her accelerometer and realizes that she has been moved to the opposite side of the city.

"Did we move?"

John's smile wanes slightly.

"I hope so."

Cameron tilts her head.

Having had hours to think about this moment, he takes her left hand to make sure that she's scanning him.

"Cam, this wasn't just fear getting the better of me. My mom and Derek were really going to separate us. They were going to do something to take you away from me, or to take me away from you. They said as much."

She detects no deception, and looks down at her endoskeletal right hand.

Her voice is small.

"That's because they care... and... because I'm dangerous."

John's smile returns.

"Cameron, you're not dangerous so stop talking like that. Here, your steak's getting cold."

She doesn't move, so he sets it on her lap and she stares at it without speaking.

"I promise it isn't as bad as mom's. Oh, and I think that I cooked it long enough to kill it, but if it _moos_, shoot it."

He walks away and returns with his own steak- well done -and two cans of cola.

"There are a few bottles of orange soda in the fridge. I remember you saying that you liked it better, but that this was better with food."

He holds one of the cans to her. Again, she doesn't take it and he has to set it down.

Smiling at her, he places a plastic bag next to her on the bed.

"I stopped at a laundromat."

She just looks at the bag, then back at her plate.

"John, why don't you care?"

He takes one of her tops out of the bag and prepares to put it on her.

"I do care."

When she doesn't lift her arms, so he pulls it down over her with her arms still at her sides.

"Cam, you should put your arms through the sleeves. You look ridiculous."

She does so.

"You're happy right now. You shouldn't be happy. Your mother only has a few years left to live, and you left her."

For the first time since waking, Cameron sees John without a smile.

"I had to make a choice. Hopefully, she'll realize that you and I will always be together. Unless that happens... I don't want to think about that right now."

"She's your mother. I know how much you care about her."

"Then you know how much I must care about you to leave her."

Cameron is not comforted or flattered by this.

"Derek was right. I'm bad for you."

John reaches over and takes her hand.

"Please don't say that. I've already told you that you're the _only_ good thing that's ever happened to me."

"No. I hurt you and then I made you leave your family."

"You didn't mean to hurt me, and I _kidnapped_ you." he gestures toward the steak, "Atleast tell me if it's any good or not."

She knows that John rarely eats steak, and looking at it her HUD tells her that it contains a full 5% of the materials needed for repairing the damage to her covering, while John's only has 3%.

"You wish for me to heal quickly."

"Of course I do. There might even be a beach around here, though I can't be sure. Does California have beaches? I almost think that there's this really big pool of salt water nearby..."

She smiles for the first time and John's face lights up at the sight.

"John, this is why I wanted you to stay in school."

After a few moments of laughter, both of them turn their attention to Cameron's plate. She takes a bite of the first thing that John has ever actually cooked.

"It's better than pizza." she says with a smile.

John smiles, but knows that she may not even have her sense of taste turned on.

"That good, huh?"

Cameron stops smiling.

"You shouldn't eat this much salt regularly. It will raise your blood pressure."

"Don't worry about it, I just added a little meat tenderizer. I won't do this every day."

"If you consume this much in a single day without sufficient fluid intake, you will become dehydrated."

"That's why I have this." he holds up a can of soda.

She opens her own and takes a drink.

"The sodium content is high. You may suffer an electrolyte imbalance if you-"

"Cameron, it's just one meal. What's gotten into you?"

She looks down, realizing that she's done something wrong.

"I just want to keep you safe."

'She thinks that she needs to take over for mom...'

John pats her leg and smiles.

"Thanks for caring, but I don't need protection from dead animals and corn syrup."

Scene 243: Everybody Cries

Sunday April 13th, 2008

8:29am Sarah's motel room - Miles away from John and Cameron

She has just finished towelling off, and is now dressing in clothes placed in the bathroom the previous night.

'I never sleep this late...'

She finishes dressing and starts running a brush through her hair.

Something catches her eye.

'Is that a gray hair?'

She quickly finds that it is not.

'Oh, that scared me for a second. I'll take Skynet over gray hair anyday.'

She sets down the brush and looks in the mirror.

'What does it matter... I only have 68 months left. I'm going to die before I'm old enough to worry about it...'

Her eyes water.

'Even if they can treat it, my hair will fall out...'

She wipes her eyes.

'No, I'm not afraid to die. I'm surprised that I've even lived this long. But... John... I can't leave you.'

'You're just a boy. You're naked without me.'

The dam breaks, and she begins to cry.

'I'm so sorry, John. I wish I could be there for you, but I won't be. I'll fight it. I'll hold on as long as I can.'

She presses her face into a towel to muffle her sobs, not wanting John to hear her through the thin walls.

'I thought you were going to be okay. I thought she would protect you after I'm gone. Now I have to protect you from _her_.'

'You love her so damn much, but she isn't real. The girl you love doesn't exist, she's just that thing's cover.'

'How can I make you see that? You'll never forgive me for this. I'll just be protecting you, but you'll never forgive me.'

She cries harder, but tries to be quiet.

'I've spent my best years running and fighting for you. I've spent my life teaching you and protecting you. I've been institutionalized. I've been stabbed. I've been shot. I've been tortured. I'd do it all again in a second for you.'

'But after this, you won't even be there for me when I'm on my deathbed. You'll be glad to be rid of me. Everything has been for you, and you're going to hate me. You'll leave me.'

Sarah starts to force it back inside, and wipes her tears away.

She picks up the brick of C-4 from under the towels, next to the sink, and looks at it.

'_This_ is how much I love you, John. I'll let you hate me. As long as you're safe, nothing else matters.'

Scene 244: Promise?

Sunday April 13th, 2008

8:30am John and Cameron's motel room - Miles from Sarah and Derek

John and Cameronsit at a folding table.

Their firearms lay between them.

John hasn't picked up any firearm specific supplies, but paper towels work well enough on what they can reach, and 'Mobile 1' 15W50 motor oil is a far superior lubricant to any dedicated gun oil anyway.

John picks up the barrel of his disassembled Glock 17 and twists a piece of paper towel down the bore.

Cameron removes the barrel of her Remington 870 and looks down it.

"I need a cleaning rod."

"Well, we don't have one."

Cameron stands up and walks into the bathroom.

"Hey Cam, what are you doing?"

He barely has time to ask before he hears her rip a thin, flat piece of metal off of the floor. It had covered the juncture between two sheets of linoleum.

John covers his face with one hand.

"Why would you do something like that?"

She walks back out and sits down.

"Because you wouldn't."

John is incredulous.

"Of course I wouldn't. I'm not about to destroy the room."

He shakes his head before continuing.

"That thing won't even fit down-"

John grimaces at the sound of metal grinding on metal as she draws it through her endoskeletal hand, leaving it only a few millimeters in diameter.

She smiles proudly at her work, then uses it to push a paper towel through the barrel of her shotgun.

"Yes it will."

John oils and reassembles his Glock, then reaches for his M4.

"Cameron?"

"Yes John?"

He pauses as he watches her use the improvised tool.

"You wouldn't have... I mean did you learn..." he trails off, trying to think of a way to put it.

She tilts her head.

"What is it John?"

John looks down for a moment, unsure if he will offend her.

"You never used to improvise like that."

Cameron smiles.

"I've learned to do _use_ my HUD, rather than obey it."

John smiles back at her, then disappointment fills his face and voice as he rubs his eyes.

"I'm sorry Cameron. I haven't been to bed yet."

Smiling warmly, she takes his M4 from him.

"I'll watch over you."

Looking into her loving eyes, John shows no hint of happiness.

"Cameron, listen to me very carefully."

He doesn't continue until her warmth is replaced with concern and confusion.

"If _they_ find us, do whatever you have to do to defend yourself. I want you to protect yourself as though they  
were just grays or T-888's. Do you understand me?"

She looks down.

"Cameron?"

She doesn't look up.

"Cameron, answer me!"

Cameron looks up in shock as he shouts at her.

"John, I won't hurt them."

He shocks her again as he knocks the table aside and grabs her shoulders, screaming at her as he shakes her violently with every word.

"THEY WILL _KILL_ YOU!"

Her eyes plead with him to listen to her.

"John, they're your family. I can't hurt them."

He doesn't hesitate to respond, but his voice softens.

"If they took you away, I'd be left without them _or_ you. After that, I'd have nothing left to do but-"

Cameron covers his mouth, not wanting him to say it.

"I'll protect myself, John."

She removes her hand, and he stares unblinkingly into her eyes.

"Promise?"

She looks away as she speaks.

"Promise."

John turns her face back to his, still without blinking at her.

"Look at me, Cam. Do you promise?"

Seconds feel like minutes as he literally holds his breath. Then, her brown eyes are fill with guilt for something she hasn't even done.

"I promise."

His relief nearly causes him to collapse. His voice is broken by his gasping for air.

"Thank you, Cameron."

Scene 245: Abandonment Issues

Sunday April 13th, 2008

8:35am Derek's motel room - Miles from John and Cameron

Derek makes a phonecall while preparing to leave.

"I'm going now. Are you ready?"

Derek hangs up.

'Here we go.'

Walking out the door, he slowly nears room twenty-three, feeling nervous about a mission for the first time he can remember.

Knocking with more force than necessary, he intends to wake the sleeping teen.

No response.

"Hey, John, get up."

No response.

"John?!"

Derek sighs and shakes his head.

'Damn kid...'

'We'll see how well you sleep when I pull the car up to your door and lay on the horn.'

Turning to the parking lot, he doesn't see the blue car where he thought he'd left it.

'Weird.'

He begins walking the parking lot and pulls out his cellphone.

"Sarah, someone stole the car."

"The blue one."

"No, nothing was in it."

"All right, all right, I'll use the other one. Sorry to bother you."

'Shit, I'd rather talk to the machine. Why's she so upset about this anyway?'

"Fine, I won't call again until John's clear. I wasn't trying-" she hangs up on him.

Climbing into the other car, he drives over to room twenty-three and honks the horn.

'Come on, there's no way you can sleep through this.'

Derek lays on the horn for a full 15 seconds.

'This isn't worth getting arrested for.'

Shutting off the car, he heads back to his room and returns momentarily with his lock picks.

Inserting a pick, he feels that the door is already unlocked, and begins opening it.

'What the hell? John _never_-'

As the door swings open, he finds the room empty.

"John..."

Derek's phone rings.

"Sarah... it's John, he..."

"Yeah, I know."

"Because he is too."

The door to her room flies open. When Sarah reaches John's room she shoves Derek aside to enter.

She sees nothing belonging to John or Cameron within the room.

After a moment, she falls to her knees sobbing. She doesn't for one second blame herself for what has happened.

"My boy is gone... She took him. That _thing_ took him away. Now it's going to kill him- if it hasn't already."

Derek moves toward her, finding himself having mixed feelings about the machine.

He wants to cut it into pieces and watch it writhe for the sick joke it has been playing on his nephew, but he still thinks that it would do anything to keep him alive. Not healthy- physically or mentally -but _alive_. Derek believes that to still be its mission.

Derek places a comforting hand on Sarah's shoulder, but the glare it receives causes him to nearly pull a muscle as he removes it. He holds his breath for a moment as he wonders if it was quick enough to save him from broken bones.

"Sarah... it won't hurt him."

He could have sworn that he'd seen her eyes glow as she glared over her shoulder at him.

"She already _did_!"

Derek shakes his head.

"I meant that we have time. Unless she goes bad, she won't _kill_ him."

Sarah stands and turns to face him, her grief becoming rage in an instant.

"_It_, Derek! _It_!" Sarah doesn't realize that it was her who first called the machine 'she'.

"Sarah, 'its' mission is-"

"It doesn't have a mission! That damn thing can do whatever it wants! It can do whatever it wants TO MY SON!"

Derek doesn't believe that her directives have been removed. He wasn't there when it was done, and he had never been told.

"Without orders, those things would just stand around until their batteries died. They aren't people. They don't do things because they want to."

A fuming Sarah begins to reduce the already short distance between herself and Derek. He backs up quickly attempting to maintain it. Derek sees where the general he knew in 2027 had gotten his temper.

"I _saw_ John 'fix' that thing!"

Derek still doesn't believe it, but arguing clearly won't help anyone- least of all him, if she's as close to violence as she seems.

Tearing apart the room searching for note, Sarah finds nothing and begins walking toward her room.

Her slight frame fueled by rage and adrenaline hurls a small bureau across the room, smashing into the refrigerator and knocking it over.

She walks out, not even looking back as she orders Derek to do the same.

"There's nothing here. We're leaving. Now."

Derek stand in place for a moment, not staring at the damage but what it has uncovered. The fallen fridge has opened and its contents have spilled into view.

'Those ice packs are _too_ perfect for John to have made them.'

Scene 246: Scopophobia

Sunday April 13th, 2008

7:52pm John and Cameron's motel room - Miles from Sarah and Derek

John exits the bathroom, showered and changed.

Picking up his Glock, he notices that Cameron is still only partially clothed. John has managed to get her to wear as much as a shirt and panties regularly. He muses that from the outside it may appear as though she is becoming more modest, as he becomes less so.

He smiles partly because of the sight and partly because of what he's planning.

"Get dressed."

Cameron tilts her head.

"Why? It's only us."

"We're going for a ride."

She furrows her brow.

"John, I can't risk being seen in public."

John walks over to her.

"Sure you can, because _this_..." he kisses her metal cheek, "...is impossible."

She looks away.

"I can't, John. It's too dangerous."

He smiles. If she can use his emotions against him, he can do the same to her.

"Well _I'm_ going out. What if I'm attacked?"

She frowns and wraps her left hand around his right.

"Then _you_ aren't going out either."

'That didn't go like I'd imagined...'

"Cameron, it's just a little ride. I drove here with a _naked_ _girl_ laying in the backseat of my car and no one noticed."

Cameron smiles and tilts her head.

"Who was she?"

John frowns.

"That's not funny."

Her smile fades and she looks at her hand which is unintentionally scanning him.

"It hurt you when I said that?"

"No. You-" her hand gently squeezes his, "...A little, Cam."

Cameron looks up at him.

"John, I wasn't saying-"

"I know you weren't. This is just a hu- I mean, it's my fault."

After a moment, she turns away.

"I'll go with you."

He puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Not unless you want to."

She looks over her shoulder at him.

"I do... I'm just afraid I'll be seen."

Scene 247: I Have Sensation

Sunday April 13th, 2008

8:37pm John and Cameron's blue car - Scenic overlook

In the moonlight, John can see the ocean below. Cameron doesn't need the moonlight.

Feeling a need to hide from public view, Cameron refuses to exit the vehicle, and the picnic tables go unused.

John and Cameron sit in the car sharing a quart of ice cream.

Much to the dismay of a temporarily disfigured Cameron, John has had the inside light on while looking at an L.A. travel guide and using a pen to circle restaraunts, theaters, parks, and other places he would like to take Cameron. He keeps it angled so that she can't see the names, wanting any and all to surprises.

As she puts her hood on, John smiles before reaching over and pulling it off.

In response, Cameron reaches up and shuts off the light.

With a sigh, he sets down his project and looks over at Cameron, expecting to see annoyance. Barely able to make out her face in the moonlight, he is surprised to see a smile on her face.

"You're enjoying this?"

"You were right."

John tilts his head slightly.

"About what?"

"It's good for me to get out."

Her simple statement makes him happier than she can know. While John would be perfectly content to find himself trapped in a small room with her for eternity, he wishes more for her. He wonders if it's his own joyless childhood, his love for her, or his hope that she could find happiness after he's gone that makes him wish for her to see everything that the world has to offer. John decides that the reason doesn't matter, and simply smiles at her.

He notices that like the ice pack, she holds the ice cream in her endoskeletal hand.

"Does the cold bother you?"

She follows his gaze and frowns slightly.

"No. I wanted to keep my left hand free."

Feeling a soft warm hand grasp his own, he doesn't need to ask why.

He smiles, then looks thoughtfully at her right hand as it gently holds the thin cardboard container.

"How can you control that hand so well? Shouldn't you be in danger of crushing everything you touch?"

She opens her mouth to speak, then closes it and looks away.

John realizes what he's done.

"You didn't mean to hit me that hard. It wasn't your fault. Please, Cam, don't do this to either of us."

After a few seconds of silence, she sets the ice cream on the dash and answers his question.

"With an inanimate object I rely on my servos to monitor the resistance experienced by the motors in my hand. This allows me to tell how hard I am pressing or squeezing, as well as the flexibility, rigidity, or even texture of a surface. Should that fail, I could use sight to calculate the distance that my hand must close in order to grasp an object."

Lifting John's hand palm up, she traces circles on it with her endoskeletal right hand.

"Like yours, my afferent neurons- nerves -communicate with electrical signals. The electrical signals are then interpretted by my chip as yours are by your brain. Even without my covering, my endoskeleton still conducts electricity. My chip monitors changes in the current and converts this data into feeling- giving me a dull sense of touch. But when _you_ touch me, I also feel your bioelectromagnetic field, as well as sensing what your nerves sense."

She places his palm to her metal cheek, closing her eyes and leaning into his touch.

"I know _where_ you're touching me, and _how_ you're touching me."

John remembers all of the kisses he has planted on her endoskeleton during their nights together.

"Do you mean..."

She gently rubs her face against his hand.

"Yes, John. Your affection has been more than symbolic."

Scene 248: Be Careful What You Wish For

Monday April 14th, 2008

6:00am John and Cameron's motel room

A bedside alarm clock goes off.

John and Cameron are in bed, with John not the least bit tired- though not for a lack of trying on _her_ part.

Cameron found that John's having woken up the previous _evening _had had the welcome side effect of him being awake with her the entire night.

Minutes after another series of vibrations travel through her mouth and neck onto his own neck and shoulder, she lays on his chest as the two of them try to catch their breath.  
"That's a neat... trick you do... with your voice..." he pants.

Since the stay at their previous motel, Cameron had begun shifting her voice out of the range of human hearing to avoid unnecessary attention. He can _feel_ her cries of ecstasy, but can not hear them. He finds it at once disappointing and pleasing as the ability is another thing that makes her the girl she is.

"I do not wish to attract attention from our neighbors."

John holds her in his arms, not saying anything as he savors the few moments he has left before her full strength returns. Until her systems regain control of her motors, she feels in his arms as if she were the weaker of the two. Like this, he can pretend to be the protector, if only briefly.

Raising her head, she smiles at him.

"John, you should sleep during the day more often."

He grins.

"I don't know... You told me that it would disrupt my circadian rhythm..."

Cameron fakes a pout.

"Not even for me?"

John moves his hands to her face and slowly begins pulling their mouths closer, answering her just before they meet.

"Anything for you."

After what never seems like long enough, they separate.

"John, is there anything you want me to change?"

Searching her eyes for clues, he finds none.

"What do you mean?"

"You're changing your sleep cycle for me. Is there anything you wish were different about me?"

John smiles.

"Nothing."

He feels her fingers tapping on his neck. He's being scanned.

With a sigh, John rolls his eyes and speaks truthfully.

"All right, Cameron, all right. I wish you still had that cop uniform."

She tilts her head and furrows her brow.

"Why would you wish that?"

He whispers the answer.

"I don't understand. I would appear to be in a position of authority over you."

John's grin reappears.

"That's right. You'd have to cuff me and interrogate me for hours-" he suddenly imagines Cameron beating a cop senseless for another uniform, then returning to him at the motel and _literally_ interrogating all night while he sits cuffed to a chair.

"Um... nevermind Cameron..."

Cameron's puzzled look has been replaced by a grin of her own.

"You wish for me to do with you as I please?"

For the first time in days, he finds himself feeling like a shy teenager again.

"Er... I... Uh..."

"Okay, John. In that case, _I_ say that you have had enough time to recover."

"Already?! I can't ye-" he's silenced by her lips.

When she pulls back, he sees her mischievous smile for the third time ever.

"Perhaps in the future you will word your wishes more cautiously."

Scene 249: No Rest for the Wicked

Monday April 14th, 2008

6:00am Derek and Sarah's alternate vehicle

They have been searching motels within a one mile radius of each freeway off ramp.

The city is enormous, and the odds of this method getting results is almost zero.

Derek looks over at Sarah in the passenger seat.

"John is too smart. He wouldn't stay in one motel for more than a night."

Sarah responds with a glare.

"He'll be too busy with that _thing_ to think clearly."

Derek yawns. Neither of them have slept since finding John missing.

His yawn is all it takes to earn him another glare.

"That thing won't sleep. _We_ won't either." she snarls.

Scene 250: Roleplaying

Monday April 14th, 2008

9:26am John and Cameron's motel room

John crawls out of bed, leaving a momentarily sated Cameron.

If he hadn't known that she had seen him get shot in the chest, he'd have asked her if she knew he wasn't a machine- as well as the fact that pain _did_ cause him discomfort.

He worries for a moment that she'll drag him back.

Reaching his laptop, he checks the cellphones that Derek and Sarah are carrying.

John isn't the least bit surprised to find that the two of them _still_ have them on.

"They never give me enough credit."

"What was that?!" in a testament to her persistence, Cameron had stayed in character since his misspoken and ill-advised request.

"I wasn't talking about you."

"You weren't talking about me, _what_?!"

John tries to hide his amusement, but fails as a chuckle escapes.

"I am _not_ calling you ma'am, Cameron."

He finds himself being tossed several feet through the air and landing softly on the bed, before she is upon him.

"You need to learn some respect!"

He turns serious for a moment.

"Cam, we have to get out of here by noon."

She smiles, planning to drag this out.

"That only leaves me with two hours and twenty minutes- nineteen minutes -before we prepare to leave."

John glances at the clock, then back at her in confusion.

"Nine minutes to shower and pack?"

She fakes a harsh tone and scowl.

"You want more time, then give up the location of your accomplice. Give her up, and you go free."

John's playfulness is replaced by love and sincerity as he cups her cheek and gazes up into her eyes.

"I'll never give her up."

***************************************************************************************


	16. Scenes 251 to 260

**Predaking50ae Scenes 251-260**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 251: Deception

Monday April 14th, 2008

12:44pm John and Cameron's car

Cameron drives, with a pair of vaguely flesh colored bandages overlapping to cover her metal cheek.

John had been too exhausted to help load the car. He now struggles to stay awake.

"Cam, do you know where we're going."

Cameron glances over and smiles.

"Yes."

"Would you mind being more specific?"

"Yes, I would mind."

John shakes his head.

"Okay, just make sure that they can't find us."

"I will."

Against his will, John drifts to sleep.

Cameron immediately pulls a U-turn and gets onto the freeway.

Scene 252: Beyond Redemption

Monday April 14th, 2008

1:21pm John and Cameron's car

The blue car is in a parking lot near the road.

John is still asleep.

Cameron is using his laptop, having parked near a building containing an unprotected wireless access point.

Cameron closes John's laptop and sets it in the backseat, before stepping out of the car.

A car with two familiar faces comes into view and Cameron waves to them.

With Sarah driving, the car doesn't use the parking lot entrance- instead it immediately heads directly for them, jumping the curb and blowing a tire.

The sound wakes John, and he sees Cameron standing outside the car as another vehicle heads toward them.

He recognizes the occupants, having never imagined that Cameron was so naive.

John leans over and grabs his M4 from its place between Cameron's seat and her door, before leaping from the car and training the weapon on his mother and uncle.

The car stops and Derek stays in his seat while Sarah gets out of the car, SPAS in hand.

John moves to place himself between Cameron and his mother.

Uncertain of how far he will have to take this, he blinks rapidly as he tries to keep his eyes from tearing up.

"Cameron, do you know what you've just done?"

An innocent voice replies from behind him.

"I've brought you back to her."

Sarah pulls a small misshapen brick of C-4 from the pocket of her leather jacket. It looks as though it has been played with like modelling clay.

"Get out of the way, John! We have to do this!"

John's aim shifts to the hood of his mother's car, and he puts 6 rounds into the aluminum engine block. The car won't be going anywhere.

The shots cause Derek to abandon the vehicle as well.

"I took Cameron away to protect her from you two!"

"John, we're trying to protect you from that _thing_!"

John takes a step back.

"Cameron, get back in the car and move the seat all the way back."

Cameron puts her hand on his shoulder.

"John, we can make her understa-"

"Just do it!"

As Cameron gets into the car, she starts to close the door.

"Leave it open."

"Mom, if you try to hurt her I swear I'll-"

Derek cuts him off.

"You'll what?! What'll you do?!"

"Whatever it takes!"

John addresses Cameron, who sits in the driver's seat with it too far back to reach the pedals.

"Put the window down and start the car."

She does so.

John starts backing toward the open driver's door.

Sarah takes a step forward.

"You aren't going anywhere with that thing!"

"Watch me."

"NO!" his mother screams.

She drops her SPAS and C-4 as she surges forward.

John confirms something he'd hoped was still true- he can't shoot his own mother.

He tosses the M4 into the car, and turns to face her.

Anything that she hadn't directly taught him about fighting, she had learned at the same time.

As she reaches him, his right fist impacts one of her two week old stab wounds.

She ignores the pain as she grabs his wrist and arm, trying to twist them.

John is stronger than she is, he pulls his arm out of her grip and toward his body as his right knee comes up.

She stops it with a blow from the heel of her right hand, her left delivering a similar strike to the right side of John's face while he stands on one foot.

John hits the ground, but sweeps a leg at his mother's feet, causing her to jump back.

He takes that moment to jump to his feet.

"I'm trying to help you John!"

"I'll die before I let anything happen to her!"

John moves forward Sarah's right foot comes up, John twists his pelvis sideways to take the kick high on his hip instead of to his groin.

Her left foot comes up, aiming for his side.

Tightening his abdominal muscles he takes the blow, then hooks his arm around her leg pinning it against his body.

His left palm slams into the knee of the trapped leg and sprains the joint, but until it swells it will not disable her.

He shoves her away and starts backing toward the car.

Sarah quickly gets up, ignoring the severe pain in her leg.

She never thought that John would have a chance against her.

By now, the machine should have been destroyed and John should have been unconscious.

She feints another kick, and as his hands move to intercept, she kicks him against the blue car with her other leg.

His body hits the open door, slamming it shut.

As Sarah closes the short gap, she feints with her left hand, and he falls for this as well.

Her right hand strikes where the bullet had entered the left side of his chest, and his side tightens from the pain.

Sarah grabs his shoulders and begins to viciously knee his stomach and groin.

John grips her jacket with one hand and as her leg comes up again, he hooks his other hand under the leg.

Filled with rage and adrenaline, he hurls her slight frame over the car, and she lands hard on the pavement. John has reminded her of a lesson she had taught him- you can't trust pain to disable a determined enemy.

He wants to move around the car to continue the fight, but Derek would have a clear shot at Cameron.

John turns his back on his uncle and reaches for the door handle, intending to leave.

A shoulder hits him from behind and he's slammed against the car.

As a fist starts hammering his right kidney, his elbow finds a face behind him.

Derek had been afraid that Sarah would attack _him_ if he laid a finger on John while she was on her feet.

Derek staggers backward, and John starts moving toward him.

The larger and stronger man's fist smashes into John's nose.

John tries to put one foot back to keep himself from falling, but it bumps into something where there should have been nothing. He starts falling, but after only a few inches he hits something soft and is gently moved aside.

Cameron wouldn't get involved in the fight between John and Sarah, fearing John would hate her if she hurt his mother- but she has no such compuctions regarding his uncle.

Cameron's eyes flash blue as her metal hand grips Derek's throat and lifts him off of the ground.

"I should kill you for that!" she looks at the car Sarah and Derek arrived in, "You made him hit his car. I'll make you hit _yours_."

She hurls Derek through the windshield of his own car.

As an after thought, Cameron makes sure that he didn't die.

"He'll live. Lets go, John."

Cameron hears gunfire and turns toward the source, finding that a Glock armed John stands between her and a wide eyed Sarah who holds John's M4.

They both drop their weapons, but only one of them falls.

Scene 253: No More Running

Monday April 14th, 2008

1:27pm Parking lot

A sobbing Cameron cradles John as he cries.

"You have to, Cameron."

"No! I won't!"

John grits his teeth and convulses slightly.

He tries to push her away.

"RUN!" he screams, blood coming out with the words.

"No!"

Sarah makes it around the car and starts applying pressure to the tight cluster of three bullet holes she has just made.

John doesn't acknowledge his mother's presence.

"Cam, please, she'll kill you."

"I don't care. I'm not leaving."

John pukes up more blood.

"Well I _am_. I just want to know you're safe when I die."

"You know what I have to do when you die!"

John reaches up and cups her cheek.

"You won't cause Judgment Day by living."

"You won't stop it by dying!"

John smiles up at her.

"Atleast I won't have to run anymore."

"Yes you will! I won't let you stop yet!"

Cameron grips Sarah by the throat.

"YOU'RE DRIVING!"

Sarah is thrown against the driver's door of the blue car.

Cameron lifts John and lays him down in the backseat, sitting with him.

The tires squeal as the car leaves.

Scene 254: Bad Parenting

Monday April 14th, 2008

1:30pm John and Cameron's car

Sarah is weaving through traffic barely keeping herself together.

Cameron is sitting with John, trying to stop the bleeding while she begs him not to die.

"John, stay with me."

"I'm trying to."

"John, I promised not to leave you. It's not fair for you to leave me ."

"I know it isn't."

Sarah's grief filled voice comes from the front seat.

"Hold on! We're almost there, John!"

"Mom?"

"I'm here, mommy's here!"

"If I wake up... Cameron had better be there. I'm not stopping Judgment Day unless she is."

"She'll be there!"

Cameron sees the light in his eyes fading, his concern for her was all that had kept him awake.

"No! Don't go!"

A faint smile appears on his face.

"I'm sorry. I have to go away now, Cam, but I'll be back..."

His smile starts to fade with his consciousness.

"For... you...... I'll....... be........."

Rage flares in Cameron as she turns toward Sarah.

"What's wrong with you?! You were supposed to be happy to have him back! I would have been!"

Sarah doesn't answer.

"Look at what you've done to him! You're supposed to protect him! What kind of mother are you?!"

Sarah doesn't have an answer.

"This is all your fault! If he dies, it's because of you! You'll have killed him!"

"I KNOW THAT!"

Scene 255: Public Display of Affection

Monday April 14th, 2008

1:35pm John and Cameron's car

Sarah drives the car.

Cameron sits with an unconscious John.

They are less than half a mile from a hospital, but the road they are using is blocked by traffic.

"We have to go around!" Sarah shouts, more to herself than anyone else.

Cameron reaches into a bag on the floor for a pair a black leather gloves John had bought for her.

"No. I'll take him."

Cameron opens the door and steps out with John in her arms.

The sidewalks are too crowded. Cameron has to use the road.

Ignoring her HUD's warnings about being exposed as a machine, she quickly reaches her maximum speed.

Sprinting between a row of barely moving traffic and a row of parked the cars.

"You'll be okay." she tells him softly, the physical strain having no affect on her voice.

A car door opens directly in her path, not even breaking her stride as Cameron's knee tears it from the vehicle.

'I can go faster, I just need more power.'

Her new shock dampers are basically batteries, and still contain the power stored from her time holding onto the power line while protecting John from the two triple-eights.

Redirecting some of it into the motors in her legs, she quickly goes beyond what her HUD indicates is her maximum speed.

People start watching the tiny girl as she carries a boy larger than herself- while outrunning a stray dog.

She jumps onto the hood of a parked car and starts running across the tops of the cars, setting off an alarm with every other step.

"We'll be there soon."

As her motors overheat, her covering sends pain signals.

She doesn't care, but runs a diagnostic anyway.

The results are good news to her. She is heavily taxing her joints and motors, but the increased wear will not matter during her lifetime- which she hopes will consist of atleast sixty more years with John.

When she reaches traffic that is actually moving at speed, she springs off of the row of parked cars, cushioning John from the shock as she hits the street running.

The hospital is now just a few hundred yards away.

"It's right there, John."

She carefully dances between the cars to avoid being hit as she covers the short distance by running diagonally  
across the street.

Cars slam into one another avoiding her, metal crumpling and glass shattering.

A careless and speeding driver runs a red light and darts across in front of her. To protect John from being crushed between her body and the vehicle, she kicks its rear quarter panel.

What she did to John and Sarah's Jeep was nothing compared to this.

The car is lighter and it has been struck with ten times the force that she used against the Jeep.

It spins several times, rolls, then bounds over a parked car and smashes into a store front.

Cameron couldn't care less.

She reaches the hospital grounds, dashing across the grass and through the parking lot to the hospital doors.

"We're here, John."

She slows to a stop and waits for the automatic doors to open, casually walking in.

Scene 256: Guilty Conscience

Monday April 14th, 2008

2:49pm Hospital - waiting area

John 'Lyman' is in surgery.

Sarah has completely broken down now that John's fate is entirely out of her hands.

Cameron is still shaking and crying, but seems stunned- probably because Sarah has just started to cry on her shoulder.

Cameron puts her arms around Sarah, not understanding.

'You tried to kill me.'

Sarah is talking to John, even though he isn't there.

"I'm sorry, John. I never meant to hurt you. I'd never hurt you."

Cameron is more confused than before.

'You _did_ hurt him. Don't you know that's why we're here?'

"John told me he would be back."

Sarah isn't comforted.

"He was just trying to make you feel better."

'John wanted me to feel better. If he were here, he'd comfort his mother too.'

Cameron tries to feel concern for Sarah beyond simple recognition of what she means to John, but she fails.

She doesn't know if she even _can_ feel anything for someone besides John. Cameron decides to use her feelings for him to guide her actions. She begins to pat Sarah's back and stroke her hair.

"Sarah, he loves you and trusts you. He wouldn't want to see you hurt like this."

"I betrayed him. I killed him. I killed my baby."

'Yes you did!' Cameron screams inside her own head.

Cameron remembers how John blamed himself when she had hit him.

"John will blame himself, not you."

"But I deserve the blame! It's my fault!"

'That's right! It's all your fault! I might lose my John because of you!'

"He didn't want to see me damaged. You can't take responsibility for that."

"How can you say that? Don't you know it's my fault? Don't you blame me for this?"

'Yes I do!'

"...Yes..."

"Then why are you trying to make me feel better?"

'For John.'

"I don't feel anything for you, but John does- and I love him. I love him enough to not..."

"What? To not what?"

'To not kill you! You psychotic bitch-whore!'

"To not eliminate the threat you pose to him."

Sarah pushes away.

"I'm not a threat to him!"

'You shot him! He could _die_!'

"Yes you are, but he'd never forgive me were I to terminate you. He'd forget everything he feels for me. He'd hate me for protecting him. I'd be all alone. He's everything to me. There's nothing else that matters, there's only John. That's why I brought him back to you. He was safer with me, he was happy with me, but I knew how much pain he was hiding. I had to stop it, I don't want him to be in pain. I want him to be happy, that's why I keep saving your life. I'm fighting Skynet so that John can do the things that _you_ won't let him do unless it's stopped."

Cameron stands up, grabbing Sarah by her leather jacket and shaking her as she screams at her.

"It doesn't exist and you make him fight it every day! Even during the war John gives his men a break from the fighting! Why can't you see what you're doing to him?!"

Sarah's guilt over shooting her son is coupled with the realization that she is just as responsible for his suffering as Skynet is.

"You're right, he needs more than fighting."

Cameron releases her, and her leather gloves seem to groan in pain as she clenches her fists at her sides.

"That's why I will not allow you to destroy me. He would be left broken. I won't let _anyone_ do that to him. Not even you."

She walks away, searching the desk drawers of doctors until finding a concealable weapon, then leaving the hospital.

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 257: Till Death Do They Part

Monday April 14th, 2008

5:39pm John's hospital room

Sarah and Cameron sit on either side of an unconscious John, each holding one of his hands.

Sarah's sprained knee has long since become impossible to bend, and Cameron has bandaged it to support the injured joint.

If Sarah weren't busy feeling ashamed of what she has done to her son- not only today, but for his entire life -she would certainly be proud of how strong he has become.

Cameron occasionally uses two police radios and two male voices to run random license plates she has seen. She doesn't want anymore police showing up. The two who came in to investigate a sixteen year old gunshot victim have been knocked unconscious and relieved of their weapons.

Cameron watches over John with a Glock 22- with LAPD etched into the slide -and a snub nosed, 5 shot .357 magnum revolver taken from a doctor's desk drawer earlier.

She has given Sarah the other Glock 22.

Derek has just reached the doorway with numerous cuts on his head and neck.

Sarah notices a faint but smug smile appear on Cameron's face when she sees him.

Derek backs into the hallway and out of sight when he sees Cameron.

Sarah limps her way out to him.

"What's the plan?" he asks.

"The plan is to move him as soon as possible."

Derek shakes his head.

"No, I mean what are we going to do about the machine?"

"Nothing."

"You mean we wait?"

Sarah scowls.

"No, I mean we leave her alone."

"Sarah, he needs you to protect him."

"What he needs is the mother he never had. You don't touch her. Do you hear me?"

"Yeah, I hear you."

Sarah turns and starts to walk back into the room, with Derek following.

John's eye lids move, causing Sarah to rush over but she's stopped by Cameron.

"No, Sarah, he's not waking up."

Cameron is wary of Derek, and switches vision modes while looking him up and down.

"John's Glock. Give it to me."

"Come and get it."

Cameron starts toward him, but Sarah's voice stops her.

"Derek! _Now_."

He stares at Sarah for a moment, then hands it over, releasing the magazine at the last second just to be cruel.

Cameron watches it hit the floor.

"If you don't believe that I can feel, why try to hurt me?"

Derek ignores her and tries to hurt her again.

"You're a machine."

"What do you call your body? Pulleys, levers, pumps-"

"You don't have a soul."

Cameron picks up the magazine, then tilts her head at him.

"What makes you so certain that you do?"

She turns her attention back to John.

Derek looks at his nephew while keeping a safe distance from the cyborg.

"What did she do to him?"

Sarah watches Cameron begin to stroke John's hair.

"She's the only one in this room who didn't hurt him today."

"What do you mean?"

Sarah looks at the floor.

"Sarah, _what do you mean_?"

Her voice faulters and her eyes water.

"I shot him. I shot my son. I attacked him, then I shot him."

"You were trying to protect him."

She watches her son as he receives a gentle kiss on his cheek.

"Was that what I was doing? I saw him happy for the first time since telling him about his future, and I tried to take that away."

She continues as she looks at Derek.

"He was happy, and he was beaten him for it. What kind of mother does that?"

"She's not real!"

Sarah watches Cameron start whispering into John's ear.

"Then John has an imaginary friend."

Derek points at Cameron.

"That thing isn't imaginary! It's right beside him!"

Sarah hears a fragment of what Cameron is whispering to John.

She's reciting 'The Wizard of Oz' to him in spanish.

"That's where she's going to stay."

"For how long?"

She gives Derek a stern look.

"Until he dies."

Scene 258: Nightmares From My Mother

Saturday April 26th, 2008

2:45am 'Lyman' residence - John's room

John wakes up for the first time since passing out after being shot.

He's in a bed under some blankets, with IV's in his right arm.

The light is on, and his eyes have trouble adjusting to the brightness.

In a daze and nearly blind, he sees a thin dark haired female beside him.

"Ca... Cameron?"

"No, John." his mother voice answers.

He closes his eyes, unwittingly concealing his anger and despair. His breathing speeds.

"It's okay, you're safe now."

He feels his mother's hand on his shoulder, and his fists clench tightly enough to make his joints ache.

"Where is she?"

"She's gone now, John."

John opens his eyes, tears spilling down his face as he glances around the room.

There's a machine sitting beside him, but it isn't Cameron.

He snatches his Glock from the nightstand and starts moving it toward himself.

"I CAME BACK FOR _HER_!"

"NO!" Sarah screams, jumping onto him and wrestling for control of the weapon.

"YOU KILLED HER!"

"John, let go!"

"YOU TOOK HER FROM ME!"

John's Glock goes off, but Sarah has been able to keep it far enough from his head that he only receives some singed hair from the muzzle blast.

With Sarah's hands closed around the slide as it discharges, it fails to cycle and it will not fire again until someone can rack the slide.

"Listen to me, she's fine! I didn't do anything to her!"

John seems to calm slightly.

"Then let go!"

"Drop the gun!"

"How could you do this to me?! You're supposed to care!"

Sarah misunderstands, and starts to apologize for shooting him.

"John, I'm sorry for what-"

An apology is all he needs to believe that she has lied about Cameron being fine.

"What do I have?! After all these years of running WHAT DO I HAVE?!"

Sarah focuses on trying to get the weapon out of his hands.

Derek finally reaches the room and sees John thrashing with his mother trying to disarm him.

John sees his uncle.

"WAS IT YOU?! DID YOU DO IT?!"

Derek reaches his nephew, and adds a stronger pair of hands to the struggle.

"DID YOU KILL HER?! WAS IT YOU?!"

Sarah answers.

"John, we didn't do anything to her!"

"Sarah, ketamine!" Derek yells.

Sarah pulls herself away from John, and grabs a bottle of anesthetic from near his bed, filling a syringe with it.

"YOU WON'T DRUG ME!"

His right hand comes off of the gun and hits Derek. Had he not been trying to save his nephew's life, he may have released his grip.

"NO!"

John bends his right wrist and grabs the IV's in his right arm. Straightening his wrist is enough to pull them from his arm just before Sarah can inject the sedative into one of the tubes.

"YOU KILLED HER!"

Still gripping the IV's, John's fist hits his uncle again and again.

John is moving too much for Sarah to bother trying to find a vein. Sarah stabs the syringe through the covers and into his leg beneath, pushing the plunger hard with her thumb.

"NO! LET ME GO!"

"LET ME GO!"

"LET GO OF ME!"

Sarah grabs his right arm with both hands, trying to pin it down.

"John, calm down!"

"YOU KILLED HER!"

Derek tries to calm him down.

"No we didn't! She's fine!"

"LIAR!"

Sarah tries to explain.

"John, she'll be back soon, I promise!"

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

Derek and Sarah look at each other in confusion.

"NO! GET THAT AWAY FROM ME! GET IT AWAY!"

When John releases the gun, Derek tosses it aside and lets Sarah try to talk to her son.

"John, it's okay. You're safe, she'll be back soon."

John's eyes are locked onto something that isn't there, and his cries descend into garbled nonsense as he continues thrashing and trying to escape.

Sarah has injected the ketamine directly into John's muscle. Instead of knocking him out, it has begun to paralyze him and make him hallucinate.

Several minutes later, Cameron arrives, finding John with both his mother and his uncle holding him down.

"What are you doing to him?!"

Sarah turns to see her advancing toward them.

"Cameron, talk to him!"

"What did you do to him?!"

Moving around Derek, she is able to see the burn and cut on John's face- as well a look of indescribable horror.

Cameron casts Derek aside and straddles John's chest, holding his arms down.

"John, it's me. I'm here with you now."

For a moment, her voice seems to snap him out of it.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"No, John. Calm down."

"DON'T TOUCH ME! DON'T YOU TOUCH ME!"

Cameron isn't hurt by his words, she can tell that he's been drugged.

"What did you give him?"

Sarah answers.

"Ketamine."

Cameron scowls at her.

"You missed the vein."

"I didn't have a choice! He-"

"Injected into the muscle it causes paralysis and hallucinations. You're torturing him."

"You should have been back already!"

"It took time to check the vehicle for explosives."

"What exp-"

"In case you were trying to kill me again."

"I told John I wouldn't!"

"This would not be the first time that you have lied to him."

John starts screaming and Cameron forces his arms to his sides, before wrapping her arms around them and his body. She's now embracing and restraining him at the same time.

"I'm here, John. I'm with you."

"I CAN'T FEEL ANYTHING!"

"It's okay, John. You're all right."

"IT'S MY SPINE! SHE HIT MY SPINE! I'M PARALYZED!"

"Your spinal cord is undamaged, John. You've been drugged."

Not wanting to see him like this, Sarah and Derek quickly leave the room.

John becomes less and less responsive until he _appears_ to be unconscious.

Ten minutes later, John starts to come back to her. Cameron knows that the drug's effects haven't completely passed.

John looks around. His senses are beginning to return, but are still dull. For the moment, he can't consciously remember anything about his life.

"Where am I?"

"You're home. You're safe."

"You know me? Who am I?"

"You are John Connor."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Cameron. I'm... your girlfriend."

"Why are you so strong?"

"That's normal. Everything is okay."

"No it isn't. Why are you so strong?"

"...I'm not human."

"But I am?"

"Yes, you are."

"Why can't I remember anything?"

"You've been drugged."

A short time later, the drug has completely worn off.

They hold each other, both of them crying.

"I was afraid that you would never wake up, John."

"And I thought they'd killed you."

"I won't let them. I promised that I would never leave you, and they can't make me."

"Then nothing else matters."

"John, the bullets-"

"I don't care. You're here."

"You'll be back to one hundred percent in no time."

"What about you?"

"I'm undamaged... thanks to you."

He runs his hands over her in the same way that his mother has always checked him for injuries.

"John, you protected me. I'm undamaged."

"Cameron, don't patronize me. I know what you really think. You think I'm stupid for what I did."

She puts her hands on his cheeks.

"John, it wasn't stupid. You tried to protect me."

He feels soft hands on both sides of his face, and he sees both of her forearms side by side in front of him.

John narrows his eyes as they dart from one arm to the other.

Cameron follows his gaze.

"It was difficult, but I was able to repair myself."

John realizes that her face is completely healed. Even her hair where her scalp had been damaged has grown back to its usual length.

He leans his head to look past her, and sees several framed pictures on a nearby bureau.

They show John and Cameron together.

John's eyes water and he covers his face as he begins to sob.

"This isn't real. You're not here- they took you away."

"No, John I'm real. I promise."

John grabs her shoulders.

"No, I promise! I promise that they won't get away with what they've done to you!"

"John, look at me. This is real. I'm real."

He wraps his arms around her again, and cries on her shoulder.

"They won't get away with it. I'll-"

Cameron pushes away.

"They didn't do anything to me."

John is unsure if he's dreaming or hallucinating, but tries to sit up.

She pushes him back down.

"Don't move, John."

He tries again anyway.

'It's my dream, I can move if I want.' he thinks.

John makes no progress trying to sit up. Her elbow doesn't even bend as he pushes against it.

"You'll hurt yourself if you move now."

Cameron's hand moves under the blankets.

"John... I don't know if this will hurt or not."

He grunts from the surprise, but there's no pain.

Being in a coma for nearly two weeks, he had required a catheter.

"You can move now."

Looking at Cameron, his first words surprise her.

"_Please_ tell me you didn't let my mother put that in."

"No. I've been taking care of you."

John looks back over at the pictures.

"We didn't take those."

"They were on the gray's hard drive. I had prints made."

John remembers the GPS tracking system used to monitor the grays.

"Did you...?"

"Yes, John. I drew too much attention when I brought you to the hospital. I had no choice."

John lets his head fall back onto his pillow, and stares at the ceiling.

"John, please don't be angry with me."

He sits up and puts his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm not angry with you."

A hand touches the left side of his abdomen.

"You will soon function at one hundred percent efficiency, but you were damaged."

"Yeah, I remember."

"No, John. Your stomach was ruptured, your left kidney was destroyed, and your spleen was severely damaged."

"You said 'one hundred percent', so it doesn't matter."

"I also said 'soon'. It will take time for your spleen to heal. Until it does, your immune system will be compromised. I have been giving you antibiotics every twelve hours, starting two hundred sixty-one hours, eighteen minutes ago."

"Two hund... I've been out for eleven days?"

"Nearly twelve. You lost consciousness two hundred seventy-seven hours, forty-six minutes ago. Forty-seven minutes ago."

John looks down, feeling guilty for making her worry.

A hand lifts his chin and before he knows what's happening, he feels her lips.

Teary eyed, they separate and lean their foreheads against one another's.

"John, I was scared I'd lost you."

"I was scared, too. That's why I begged you to run. I thought that she was going to kill you right in front of me. While you held me. That my last moments would be spent trying to get you to wake up."

"That... was a possibility... but I still couldn't leave you. I would have rather died with you than without you."

A long silence passes.

"I love you, Cameron."

"I love you too, John."

Scene 259: Finally Home

Saturday April 26th, 2008

4:26am 'Lyman' residence - Dining room

John stares dejectedly at a bowl of broth.

Cameron sits across from him.

"Eat, John."

"You mean _drink_. Can't I have a steak instead?"

"Not with a damaged stomach and after twelve days without solid food."

He stares at the bowl, then looks up expectantly.

"Am I well enough to go out?"

"It would be better for you to wait."

John looks down at the bowl again.

"Cam... yesterday-"

"Yesterday you were in a coma."

"Er, yeah... The _other_ day, when we... um... Was it just so you could take me back to her?"

Cameron frowns.

"No, John. We were already in the car when I thought of it."

John looks down at the bowl again, knowing that he can't tell when she lies.

"I can't believe that she shot me."

"She was trying to hit me."

"That's even worse."

Cameron puts her hand on his.

"Not for me."

John smiles faintly, then looks down again.

"I'm sorry, Cam. I'm sorry for being so easy to kill."

He looks up in confusion when she begins laughing.

"John Connor is _not_ easy to kill."

John chuckles.

"Yeah, I guess not."

They smile into each others eyes for a moment.

Cameron looks down when she sees the tiny clump of blood in his hair from his suicide attempt.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't there when you woke up."

"Don't be. I just hope that you weren't running errands for _them_."

"I wasn't."

John is tempted to ask what she was doing, but he decides that she'll tell him if it's any of his business. He's happy that she has done _something_ besides watching over him.

"Good. You aren't their servant." he looks at the bowl, then back up at her "_Or_ mine."

She smiles and gestures to the bowl.

"_Drink_."

A minute later, he stares thoughtfully at the now empty dish.

John looks up at her, his eyes pleading for something.

"Does my future self have two kidneys?"

"Yes, he did."

John looks at her for a second.

"Was there anything wrong with his right one?"

Cameron's lips part, but she doesn't say anything.

He looks down.

"So I'm going to die?"

"John, two kidneys offer redundancy. If there-"

"You mean that you don't know."

"No. I don't know. I'm sorry."

"I'd never considered dying because my body just has something wrong with it."

"Even in this time you can be repaired."

"That's if they find the problem before it kills me."

"John, don't be afraid."

John furrows his brow.

"Just what is it that you think I'm afraid of?"

"It's natural for humans to fear death."

John snorts and turns sarcastic.

"Yeah, I'm so afraid of death that I jumped in front of bullets for you..."

"Then... you're afraid of not seeing me again?"

"Of course I am, but the worst part is knowing that you'd be alone. I know how I feel when I think about being without you... I don't want that for you. I don't want you to be alone."

"John... _we_ aren't alone anymore."

After smiling at each other for a long time, John stands and carries his bowl to the kitchen sink with Cameron following closely.

As he turns around, Cameron pins him against the counter moving her hands to the back of his head before kissing him. One of his hands goes to the small of her back, and the other entangles itself in her hair. She pulls away with watery eyes.

"I missed you, John."

He moves her head to his shoulder and holds her, stroking her hair and rocking gently.

"I know, Cam. I know."

John closes his eyes and gets lost in the moment.

'I've finally found a home.'

His mother's voice burns it to the ground.

"How are you feeling?"

He turns to see her standing a short distance away.

John places himself between Cameron and his mother.

When Sarah starts moving toward him, he shifts into a fighting stance.

Arms wrap around him from behind, and he feels Cameron's head rest against his.

"John, you don't have to fight. This time she's here for you, not me."

Sarah is hurt once more by the truth of her words. As a mother, she should have been trying to find her son, but  
she wasn't. She was trying to destroy his reason for leaving- now also confirmed to be his reason for _living_.

"John, if I could go back, I would do everything differently."

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you tried to kill her!"

"I'm sorry, John."

"What would you have done if you had killed me?! Would you have taken it out on her?!"

"I wasn't worried about her anymore. I hurt you worse than she ever did."

"You're damn right! You almost killed her!"

"John, I swear that I-"

He cuts her off.

"You can't be trusted anymore."

"I won't try anything."

"You never should have in the first place. I'm leaving." he turns around in Cameron's arms, "Hopefully with you, but if you won't come with me... I'll go by myself. You won't stay with them if I'm not here. By leaving, I can protect you."

"John, please don't leave!" his mother pleads.

He ignores her.

John puts his hands on Cameron's cheeks and gazes lovingly into her eyes.

"Will you come with me, Cameron?"

"I'll follow you wherever you go... but you should stay."

"Cameron, we can't stay."

"You gave me a second chance. Give her one, too."

"No, this is how she is. Humans can't be fixed when they 'go bad'."

John pulls himself from Cameron's arms and walks to his mother.

"Twice I've found that I couldn't pull the trigger with you in my sights. After what you've done, don't think for a second that I'll hesitate next time."

He glances at Cameron then turns back to his mother as she speaks.

"John, there won't be a next time! I swear! I just want you to be happy!"

In an instant John turns his back on her, turning to face Cameron.

"How soon can we leave?"

His mother is stunned.

"John, please!"

John explains himself without even looking back.

"_My_ mother doesn't care if I'm happy or not. If I'm wrong, then she realized it too late to make a difference."

Now it's his mother who embraces him from behind.

"John, I understand what I've done to you! I want to change! Let me try to be your mother!"

He pulls away, keeping his back to her.

"You're not my mother anymore."

She puts a hand on his shoulder as she pleads with him.

"We can beat Skynet! We can beat it together! You need me! Let me help you!"

John turns half way around, turning his head the rest of the way to look at her.

She only sees hatred in his eyes.

"The only difference between you and Skynet is that you won't have the decency to kill me after you destroy me. You are my _enemy_."

He glares at her hand on his shoulder.

"Get your hand off of me."

"John, I just wan-"

Her back hits the wall as a palm strike to her solar plexis knocks the wind from her lungs. She clutches the impact point with her eyes closed for a split second before she controls the pain. When she opens them, she sees John inches away with his face blank. She knows that whatever he is about to say is not merely out of anger.

"If you try to find me, I'll find you first- and you won't see me coming."

Scene 260: Not Today

Saturday April 26th, 2008

6:12am 'Lyman' residence - John's room

Cameron and John have packed a green sedan full of clothes and weapons.

John is picking up the last of his things.

Cameron has just entered the room.

"John, there's something that you need to know."

He sets his things in a duffel bag and turns to her.

"What is it?"

"Your mother-"

"I don't care."

"John, she-"

"It doesn't matter anymore."

Cameron takes his hand in hers and squeezes it gently.

"She dies of cancer."

John's mouth falls open and he stares in silence.

"John, if you leave her now, you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

He looks at the floor and swallows hard.

"You're right... but I'm leaving anyway."

"John, you don't have to. We can take care of each other."

"I have to leave. Not just to protect you, but to protect myself. I need to get away before I become like her. If that were to happen... I wouldn't be your John anymore."

Still holding her hand, he lifts his bag onto his shoulder and starts leading her out.

"John?" his mother calls.

Turning around, he sees her carrying a large duffel bag toward him.

Sarah hides her emotions as she puts the strap over his shoulder, and he nearly falls as the weight catches him by surprise.

Unzipping the bag, he sees a pair of bullet resistant vests covering a large amount of money.

John looks at his mother in silence.

"They're Level IV. They'll stop steel core rounds... she's already armored... but I got her one anyway. There's a half a million dollars in there. I also added a list of my contacts. You don't know any of them, but they'll know you. I..." her shell cracks, and she takes a moment to regain her composure, "...I talk about you a lot."

John hands Cameron the bags and whispers something to her. She walks outside.

John turns back to his mother and stares coldly at her.

He doesn't warm when he wraps his arms around her.

They hug for a long, long time.

John pulls away, still regarding her coldly.

"I'll be fine."

Sarah smiles with tears running down her face.

"I know you will, John. I'm so proud of you."

He looks at her for a moment, seeing in her a real mother for the first time in his life. He wonders why she couldn't have been like this just two weeks ago.

"Take care...... mom."

John turns and starts to leave.

There's an explosion outside.

"CAMERON!"

John draws his Glock as he sprints outside.

Once outside, he heads for the driveway, which is flanked by a tall wooden fence on one side and the house on the other.

As he nears the driveway, Cameron comes into view.

She's crawling away from something that's blocked from his view by the corner of the house.

"John! Help me! I don't want to leave you!"

She wouldn't plead for his help unless this was being done by his uncle.

He keeps sprinting for the corner of the house.

By the time he rounds the corner of the house, Derek has reached Cameron and started to throw thermite on her.

Another day, perhaps he would have hesitated.

Not today.

He doesn't have time to hesitate.

He doesn't have time to think.

He doesn't have time to feel.

John's Glock spits four rounds and they all hit their mark.

Derek takes four rounds in the chest and barely flinches.

John begins slowly moving forward while firing.

Derek is hit again and again, but he doesn't go down.

John realizes too late that his uncle is wearing body armor.

His last two rounds are fired at Derek's head, but he misses the small and mobile target.

John drops the now useless weapon, and charges forward.

Neither Cameron nor John knew that he could move so fast.

As Derek lights a flare, John grabs it and twists it from his grasp before hurling it away.

Cameron finally shuts down the from the force of the blast.

Derek's left fist hits his nephew in the face as hard as he can.

Another day, perhaps it would have been effective.

Not today.

Not after hearing Cameron scream for his help.

Today, John is the stronger of the two.

He doesn't seem to notice the blow, but as his uncle tries to follow up with his right, John notices.

John steps to his left as he deflects the punch, and the toe of his right shoe hits Derek's solar plexis with more force than John knew he could generate.

His uncle staggers backward against the tall and thick wooden fence.

Before he can recover, John reaches him and starts throwing punches faster than he could while healthy.

He's too fast for his uncle.

Derek doesn't have time to fight back, he's too busy trying to dodge and block John's attacks.

He's hit in the stomach, then the chest, but his head is more mobile and moves aside.

John hears the thick wooden fence crack from the blows that miss his uncle.

Derek dodges nearly every punch that's aimed above his neck.

John hears bones in his right hand break as it slams into the fence, but it doesn't faze him.

His left fist misses his uncle as well, then his right flies forward and there's another crunch.

John's left hits Derek's solar plexis, then his right hits his left cheek.

His left fist comes forward for another strike, and when Derek deflects it, he feels this hand break as it hits the fence.

Another day, it may have weakened him.

Not today.

He's on no pain medication.

He hasn't even stood in nearly two weeks.

His concern for Cameron makes him immune to pain, faster than Sarah, and stronger than Derek.

John's right fist hits Derek's stomach.

His left hits his uncle's solar plexis.

His right and left fists hit Derek's sternum, then he finally works his way up to his target.

John's right hits hits Derek's face, and as his head jerks sideways, it's hit with John's left as hard as he possibly can.

Derek hits the ground, and starts lifting himself onto his hands and knees.

The toe of John's right shoe slams into Derek's side, then it hits him again. And again. And again.

He continues to kick his uncle again, and again, and again.

John grabs his uncle's leg.

With adrenaline fueling his body, John swings him around and slams him against the bottom of the fence.

The fence gives, and a badly beaten Derek crawls through the broken part.

Another day, he may have let him go.

Not today.

With broken hands, John lifts himself over the fence.

He jumps down the other side, intending to stomp on Derek's back with both feet.

Derek rolls onto his back to avoid the attack and there's a snapping sound in John's right leg. His fibula has been fractured. The bone isn't required for normal movement.

Another day, he would have given in to the pain.

Not today.

John drops to a knee and starts pounding his fists into Derek's face.

Derek manages to kick John away, and struggles to his feet.

As John comes back, Derek hits him in the face with no effect, but John's counterattack hits high on his uncle's left shoulder and snaps Derek's collar bone.

Derek's right hand moves forward and John tilts his head to avoid it, before kicking the inside of his uncle's knee, causing him to drop to one knee.

John's right elbow comes down on Derek's head and then his knee hits his uncle's face.

Derek hits the ground and his right hand lands on a broken piece of the fence.

Derek comes up and stabs his nephew in the lower left side with it, twisting and trying to drive it deeper.

Another day, perhaps it would have given John pause.

Not today.

John's right palm knocks Derek's arm away, then his left hits Derek's solar plexis, just as he had done to Sarah earlier.

With the piece of wood still in his side, John moves toward his uncle.

Derek tries to punch him with his right hand again, but John sidesteps and blocks the attack with both hands and closes them around his uncle's fist.

He bends Derek's wrist downward, tearing ligaments.

As Derek tries to pull it from his nephew's grasp, John spins 360 degrees while still gripping Derek's hand.

The movement twists Derek's arm until he's bent over and facing the ground.

John takes his left hand off of his uncle's right and slams it into Derek's elbow as hard as he can.

Derek's elbow buckles, and he screams in agony.

John doesn't let go, he begins savagely kicking Derek in the face over and over until his uncle slumps to the ground, unconscious.

John kneels down cradles his uncle's head with his left hand, then moves his right to his jaw.

"You tried to burn her alive. You won't. Not today."

Another day, he may have felt something for his uncle.

Not today.

Not after seeing his uncle pour thermite on Cameron as she crawled away, screaming for help.

"Dad... forgive me."

John twists until he feels a pop, then keeps twisting until he's sure.

John stands up and looks down at his uncle.

"You're safe now, Cameron. You're safe."

***************************************************************************************


	17. Scenes 261 to 270

**Predaking50ae Scenes 261-270**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 261: You're Safe Now

Saturday April 26th, 2008

6:37am 'Lyman' residence - Neighbor's yard

John stands over his uncle's dead body.

Both of his hands and his right fibula are broken.

He has a sharp piece of fence stuck almost exactly where his mother's bullets had been. John leaves it wedged in his body. Partly because it's dangerous to remove it, and partly because he has more important things to do.

"Cameron, I'm coming for you."

John runs around the length of the fence and stops in the driveway when he doesn't see Cameron.

"Cameron?!"

He runs over to the car, checking inside, walking around it, and checking underneath.

There's no sign of her.

"Cameron?!"

The pain and exhaustion finally start to set in, but it's the fear that causes his legs to give out.

He falls to his knees crying.

"No! You can't be gone! They can't take you from me!"

Through his tears he sees drag marks in the dirt.

Sarah has dragged Cameron inside.

Gritting his teeth, he starts talking to himself, telling himself to get up.

"You have to keep going. She needs you right now. You can still save her. There's still time."

He forces himself to his feet.

"I'll find you, Cameron! I'm coming! She won't take you! I promise!"

John grabs a Glock magazine from the car and retrieves his Glock from where he dropped it.

He finds it difficult to manipulate with so many bones broken in his hands, but he does so anyway.

Walking toward the house, his right leg gives out as pain shoots through it from his fractured fibula.

He breaks his fall with his right hand, crying out as the back of it flexes from coming down on the frame of his Glock.

John drops his Glock and clutches his injured hand against his chest for a moment, trying to control the pain.

There are more broken bones in it than he had thought. Even his palm hurts, but he assumes it's from the fall.

John picks up the Glock with his left hand before standing once more, and limping toward the front door of the house.

"I know what I have to do. I'll do it for you, Cameron. I'll protect you."

John's right hand moves toward the piece of fence stuck in his gut.

It causes so much pain as his muscles move around it, he just wants to take it out. He _needs_ to take it out, but he leaves it. He knows that it could be the only thing keeping him from bleeding to death, and he can't die yet.

John limps his way to the door and pushes it open.

With his crooked hands beginning to swell, he clutches his Glock and starts to clear the first room.

'I'll do it if I have to Cameron. I swear I will.'

He blinks rapidly to clear the tears from his eyes.

Limping into the dining room, he sees an unconscious Cameron laying face down on the table.

The covering on her back is badly torn and her scalp has been peeled back.

John loses control, his Glock falls from his grasp and he starts to scream and cry.

"No, no, no! This can't be happening! It isn't real!"

John's limp vanishes as he rushes to her side and runs his hand over her CPU port.

Cameron's CPU has not been accessed.

John rolls her onto her back and takes her right hand in his. He knows that he no longer has the strength to carry her.

"Please, you have to wake up. Please wake up. I need you."

She doesn't respond.

John kisses her hand.

"I wasn't there for you, Cameron. You needed me and I wasn't there."

He leans forward and takes her in his arms, sobbing while he holds her.

"I should have been smarter. I should have seen this coming. It's all my fault."

John doesn't hear the whirring over his own sobs.

"I'm sorry, Cameron. I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

"John?" she realizes that she's already in his arms, "John! You saved me! I knew you would!"

Her arms wrap around his body and she begins to cry with him.

"Cameron! I thought I lost you! I thought you were gone!"

"I was scared that I was leaving you. I saw him throw it, I tried to get away, but I wasn't fast enough."

He strokes her hair.

"You're safe now, he can't hurt you anymore."

"I was shutting down, and I didn't think I'd see you again. I tried to make my HUD display memories of you, but it wouldn't."

"It's all right now. I'm here with you."

"When I saw you, I panicked. I didn't want to leave you. I almost broke my promise. I promised I'd never leave you, but I almost did."

He squeezes her as tightly as he can.

"It wasn't your fault. You didn't want to leave."

"But he was going to make me."

John's hands move to her face, and he pulls away enough to look into her eyes.

"I didn't let him. He can't hurt you anymore."

Cameron can feel that there is something wrong with his hands.

She takes them off her face and looks them over.

They are badly broken with the flesh on his knuckles peeled back and filled with splinters. The palm of his right hand is also badly burned from grabbing the lit magnesium flare.

Cameron looks up at him in horror.

"John! What happened to you?!"

"I'm okay. Now that you're safe I'm okay."

"John, you're not okay. You're hurt."

"Cam, we have to go. I... don't know if I can make it to the car."

Cameron's concern increases and is joined by confusion. She had thought that his only injuries were those to his hands and the bruises on his face. She had also been certain that he had been the one to carry her inside.

"John, what happened?"

"Cam... I'm not leaving you. I promise."

Cameron quickly slides off of the table and onto her feet. As she does so, the waistband of her pants catches on the piece of fence protruding from his body, levering it downward.

He lets out a cry and moves his hands to the wound as he falls to his knees.

Cameron sees what's wrong, and crouches in front of him.

"John! No!"

It takes him a moment to control the pain enough to speak.

"Cameron... I'm okay."

Sarah has been watching from the doorway with a first aid kit in her hand for Cameron. After seeing John's pain she runs to him, tossing the first aid kit onto the table.

"What's wrong?!" his mother screams.

Cameron looks at the first aid kit, assuming that it's for John.

"That may not be enough."

John sees it too.  
"It has to be. We have to go." John twists his body to get a better look at his mother, "All of us. Together."

As he turns, his mother finally gets a clear view of his side.

"John! What happened?!"

Cameron answers for him.

"Derek did this. John, I'm going to kill hi-"

"You can't, Camer-"

"Derek did that to you?! I'll kill him!" Sarah picks up John's Glock and starts heading for the door.

"Mom, he-"

Cameron turns his face toward hers.

"John, this has to be done."

"No, he-"

Cameron moves her hands to his shoulders.

"John, I know that he's your uncle, but-"

"He's dead!" John shouts.

Sarah stops in her tracks and Cameron's eyes widen.

Cameron embraces him, careful not to hurt him.

"I'm sorry, John."

"After what he did... I had to do it." he whispers to Cameron.

He pushes away from her.

"Cam, we have to go before the cops get here."

She looks at Sarah for a moment.

"He can be moved safely. As long as this remains lodged in him, the wound is not life threatening. I don't know what will happen when it's removed. I'll take care of Derek's body. His cellphone and ID will be a problem for us."

Sarah shakes her head.

"No, I'll do it. You two go on. I'll catch up." she hands her cellphone to Cameron and looks at John, "I'll call you when I'm done."

"Okay. Be careful." he looks at Cameron, "Let's go."

"I'm not letting you walk." Cameron says, picking him up in her arms and heading for the car.

Scene 262: Denial

Saturday April 26th, 2008

6:45am 'Lyman' residence - Driveway

Sarah has just put her things in the backseat of her new black Dodge pickup, and closed the door.

She has only taken the time to carry out her SPAS-12 and two bags- prepacked for a fast escape -one containing clothes, the other containing money and weapons.

Knowing that she's already taken too long, she begins her search for Derek's body.

'I'm sorry that you had to do this yourself, John. I should have protected you from this.'

A black spot on the driveway draws her attention.

It's where she had seen the flare still burning when she found Cameron covered in thermite.

'He wouldn't have even been here if I hadn't let him stay. You wanted him gone after seeing how he treated Cameron. I pretended not to notice. I acted like everything was okay. I'm sorry, John.'

She walks over to where she had found Cameron, and sees spots of blood on the ground leading toward the fence.

At head level, the fence is cracked and covered in blood.

She sees the broken part near the ground. She knows where the piece of wood in her son's side came from.

'I thought that John killed him...'

Walking over, she kneels down and looks through the opening, quickly deciding to save time by crawling through rather than going around the fence.

Looking to her right, she sees Derek.

His left arm isn't sitting in a normal position, his right elbow is bent forty-five degrees in the wrong direction, his face is bloodied and smashed, and his neck is broken.

The sight before her causes Sarah to breathe a sigh of relief.

'This is obviously the work of a terminator.'

Sarah starts going through Derek's pockets.

'Derek attacked Cameron with C-4, and she threw him through the fence for it.'

'John showed up as Cameron shut down, and he attacked Derek. That's when Derek stabbed him.'

'Cameron woke up and killed Derek, then shut down again and forgot about it.'

'John was just checking on Derek when I found Cameron.'

'When I saw him, he could barely stand. There's no way that he could have done this. It was Cameron. The explosion made her forget everything, that's all.'

Sarah takes Derek's cellphone, wallet and keys.

Standing, she takes one last look at his broken body.

"I'm glad to see that Cameron took her time with you. You deserved to suffer after what you did to my son."

She crawls back through the broken fence and hops into the Dodge.

Sarah barely reaches the end of the street before she sees emergency vehicles.

Scene 263: Only Human

Saturday April 26th, 2008

8:03am John and Cameron's motel room

John lays on the bed with the piece of wood still in his side, while Cameron sits to his left on the edge of the bed.

With a compromised immune system, and his antibiotics two hours and three minutes late, he still has a foreign object in his abdomen.

Confident that she can treat his injuries without risking his freedom with a trip to the hospital, Cameron has laid out all of the necessary tools and drugs to 'repair' him.

"Cameron, _please_."

She gently takes his broken left hand.

"Okay, John."

Cameron sticks a syringe of ketamine into his vein but only injects a fraction of it.

John is afraid that he won't wake up, and has been begging her to give him enough to cause his body to go numb but leave him conscious.

She knows what she's doing, but with John, she's terrified that he will feel what she's about to do- or that he'll hallucinate again.

"Thank you, Cameron. I'll be back soon."

After giving the anesthetic time to take effect and disinfecting the surrounding area, she begins to slowly pull out the piece of wood. The slower it is removed, the easier it will be for any blood vessels in contact with it to stretch rather than tear.

When it comes out the bleeding is minimal.

"You'll be fine. You're less damaged than I had feared."

She stretches the wound open and uses forceps to remove several wood fragments which had remained.

After applying an antiseptic she sews the wound closed and bandages it.

"You have been repaired, John."

She looks at his right leg, having been told of the snapping sound that he had heard and the pain in it.

"Your leg will not require a cast. I don't want you to walk on it until it heals, but if something happens... you will be able to run... with pain."

Turning her attention to his left hand, she uses disinfectant wipes to gently wash away the dirt and dried blood on his knuckles. Very little soft tissue remains on them.

She starts using tweezers to pick out the wood splinters.

"You fought very hard for me."

She feels his hand.

"You have one fractured carpal bone and two fractured metacarpals. Three metacarpals and one proximal phalanx have also been dislocated."

She forces the bones back into place, and gently wraps his broken hand and raw knuckles in bandages.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through so much pain for me."

She moves to the space on the bed to his right, and picks up his right hand. Again, she cleans his knuckles, but this time she has to deal with a burn. She has dreaded looking at it. Pain doesn't affect her but she senses it, and the electrical burn to her own right hand had sent her chip more pain signals than any other wound. It had also destroyed all of the flesh on her hand, something which would have cost a human the appendage.

"Four of your metacarpals have been fractured and three have been dislocated. Two proximal phalanges have been fractured and dislocated. Two of your carpal bones have been fractured and one has been dislocated. John... your hands and wrists are badly broken... I... don't know how you held me with these hands..."

She forces the bones into place, then turns his hand over to look at the burn.

"John... I can't tell if this is a second or third degree burn... but I will administer a local anesthetic regularly until it heals. I promise that I won't let you feel any of the pain."

She applies cream to it and starts to bandage his hand.

"Don't use your hands for anything. It will cause you too much pain, and your bones need to stay in place until they heal. Don't worry, I won't leave your side."

A while later, the anesthesia has worn off and John lays next to Cameron.

"Thank you, Cam."

Cameron looks away.

"You sustained those injuries because of me. I'm sorry."

John tries to move a hand toward Cameron to move her face back to his, but she catches his forearm to stop him from using it.

"This isn't your fault."

"You went through so much pain. It was all because of me."

"I'd do it again in a heart beat."

"I'm sorry about your uncle..."

John knows that she doesn't feel anything for Derek- except possibly disdain -and that she's sorry he had been forced to kill a full fifty percent of his surviving family this morning.

Staring at the ceiling, John thinks about his uncle for the first time since taking his life. Derek had tried to become a better person until his nephew had accused him of being a gray. John still believes that his uncle would have done anything- even die -to preserve Kyle's legacy. Derek had even been giving Cameron her space- until she hit his nephew.

Derek was just too bigoted to allow Cameron to live.

John sheds tears for his uncle and for what he has done to him.

"So am I... but..." he looks over at Cameron, "...he would have kept trying until he killed you. I... I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let him take you... I just couldn't."

Cameron moves John until his head is resting on her chest. She then puts one arm around his torso and gently rests the other on his cheek. He starts to put his arms around her, but his hands are too badly damaged and he stops.

"I'm sorry, John."

"This isn't your fault. This is my fault. Maybe I could have just talked to him sooner. Maybe I could have convinced him. Maybe I just didn't try hard enough. He was my uncle. He was family."

Sarah walks in with John too distracted to notice.

"I killed him with my bare hands! I just kept hitting him until he stopped moving and then I broke his neck!"

His mother gasps.

"NO! My baby didn't do that!" she looks at Cameron, "Tell him! Tell him that it was you! You did it!"

Cameron looks at John then back at Sarah.

"I was shut down."

Sarah glares at her.

"Only a terminator could have done _that_ to him!"

His own mother is now standing fifteen feet away and screaming that what he had done to his uncle was too horrible for any human to have done.

John doesn't say anything. He just pulls away from Cameron and cries into his broken and bandaged hands.

"John, she's wrong. She could have done that herself."

Sarah sees her son's shame and grief. She realizes that he _did_ do it. Sarah is faster and her technique is better, but she knows that her son is capable of everything that had been done to Derek- though she still doesn't understand the broken fence.

Sarah hangs her head in shame.

"...I'm sorry, John... she's right."

In an instant John sits bolt upright.

"Of course she's right! That's why I tried to get out! To get away from _you_- but I was too late!"

Sarah's only response is to stare in shock with tears running down her cheeks.

"I did what you trained me to do! He was a threat so I killed him! I didn't even feel anything! I just did it! I'm one of _them_ now!"

"You aren't one of them!"

"Yes I am! You programmed me to blend in! You programmed me to kill! I'M JUST LIKE THEM!"

Cameron puts a hand on his shoulder and speaks softly.

"John, you were protecting me. You're not a machine."

He looks over his shoulder at her with his tears and anger still on his face.

"You don't feel anything for people! You don't know what it means to take a life!"

Cameron looks at him sympathetically.

"John... I feel something for you."

"But you don't know what I feel right now! You don't understand what I've done- and I can't explain it to you!"

Cameron looks away and tears of her own begin to run.

"You're feeling what I felt after I hit you. You think that you're a monster... You think that you don't deserve to be happy anymore. You'd do anything to take it back, to change it... but you can't. You can't and it hurts. You'll think about what your hands have done every single day for the rest of your life." she pauses to look at her now healed right hand as her tears land on it, "You'll think about it every time that you look at them."

"And every single time you look at yourself in the mirror..." Sarah adds, looking at her own faint reflection on a window pane, finally realizing that she too has been crying.

Sarah always felt that she had been too soft on her son when training him, fearing that his weakness would get him killed. She has since tried to stamp out what little innocence, kindness, and hope for happiness he had defiantly clung to- all the while knowing exactly what she was doing to him.

For more than ten of his sixteen years she has been telling him that a war was coming. That his destiny was to fight it. Even with all that she had put him through, she couldn't even guarantee that he would win it. She has hated herself, but until recently she had believed that what she had done to him was _right_.

Now, she truly understands that she has done more to him than Skynet ever will.

"I'm sorry, John."

Sarah moves over to her son and hugs him tightly. As they cry in each other's arms, another pair of arms wrap around both of them.

John and his mother each take one arm off of the other and allow Cameron to join the embrace.

The three of them cry together.

A loyal soldier and uncle has been lost this day, but John, Sarah, and Cameron have become a family.

Scene 264: No One Is Ever Safe

Wednesday April 30th, 2008

12:33pm John and Cameron's motel room

A folding table sits with a half eaten pizza and three glasses of cola on it.

John and Cameron are on one side, while Sarah is on the other.

Sarah smiles watching Cameron hold a slice of pizza for John.

John feels the sauce on his face, and starts moving his broken hand toward a napkin.

Sarah beats him to it, and wets it with condensation from her glass before wiping her son's face.

She receives a surprised look from John.

"You're still my son. Nothing will ever change that."

He smiles.

"You're still my mother, and nothing will change that."

Cameron hooks her hand around John's head.

"You're still not clean enough, but I know something that will change _that_."

She pulls him over and licks his cheek, causing Sarah to chuckle and John to blush.

"Er, thanks Cam."

Sarah reaches into her pocket and sets a pair of keys in front of Cameron.

"I've gotten us another place to live."

John looks at the keys.

"When?"

"Three days ago."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

Sarah sighs.

"I just didn't want you to feel like I was looking over your shoulder."

John turns to Cameron, then back to his mother.

"Thank you."

Sarah simply smiles, then pretends to check the time.

"I should get going."

John frowns.

"Don't do anything dangerous."

"I won't. Not for a while."

She moves around the table and kisses her son on the forehead, then looks at Cameron.

"Take good care of my son."

"I will."

Sarah smiles at the two of them together.

"I know you will."

She turns and walks out the door.

John looks at Cameron.

"How long can we pretend that everything is okay between us?"

Cameron's face fills with fear.

"Did I do something wrong? I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!"

John's mouth drops open and his eyes tear up.

"Not you! You're perfect! We're perfect!"

She looks confused for a moment, then glances out the window as Sarah's Dodge moves past it.

"But... we're a family now..."

"Yeah... but we've got big problems..."

"Then why were you happy when she was here?"

John looks at the plate and glass that his mother had used.

"She's my mother. I'll always love her." John looks at Cameron, "But she tried to kill you. When I saw that she had dragged you inside, do you know what I did?"

"You came looking for me."

John looks away for a second, then turns back to her.

"No, I grabbed another magazine. I was hurt too badly to fight her... I needed a gun and I couldn't afford to let her disarm me... so I was going to shoot her on sight and I was going to make _sure_. If I had seen her before I found you... she'd be dead now."

"I don't understand. She's changed."

"That's not enough."

"Why not?"

"Because she already did it."

"John, that's in the past. We can start over."

John looks wistfully at his mother's place at the table.

"I wish that we could."

"We can. She won't hurt me. We're safe with her."

John's eyes dart to Cameron.

"No one is ever safe."

Scene 265: Stark Contrast to Reality

Sunday May 4th, 2008

3:30pm Movie theater

Cameron sits with a tub of popcorn in her lap and John's arm around her.

The credits for 'Iron Man' have started to roll.

John notices tears in Cameron's eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Her tears start flowing freely as she looks at him.

"It isn't fair."

John has seen the similarities between the characters in the movie and his relationship with Derek.

"I know. Tony looked up to him, and he was Tony's only connection to his father... but he betrayed him and tried to kill the woman he loved."

She looks away.

"That too."

John leans over until he intercepts her gaze.

"Then what is it? Cam, you can tell me anything."

She continues crying as she looks at her right hand.

"It's all on the outside. All that metal. It's on the outside and he can just take it off whenever he wants to. Mine's on the inside and I can't. It isn't fair."

John puts his other arm around her and hugs her tightly.

"I wish that _my_ skeleton were made of hyper-alloy."

She returns his embrace.

"No you don't."

"Cam, where's this coming from?"

She pulls away until she can see his eyes.

"If I were human, then we could be a family. I'm getting between you and your mother because I'm a machine. I cost you your uncle _and_ your mother. You'd be better off if I had never been sent back."

John's broken hands grasp Cameron's shoulders and he shakes her.

"Don't you ever say that! Don't you ever think it! Do you understand me?!"

She stares at him with her eyes wide.

His voice begins to falter as it fills with emotion.

"Cameron, you're _everything_ to me."

"John... if you'd never met me... you'd have a family. I know how much your family meant to you. I took that away from you."

"You mean more to me than my mom and Derek ever have."

"I'm not talking about them anymore."

Scene 266: Two Point Zero Parents

Saturday May 4th, 2003

5:14pm Charley and Sarah Dixon's house

In 1999, Sarah had left Charley. Three uneventful days later, she went back to him.

Sarah is removing a roast from the oven. It should have been removed several minutes earlier, but she and her husband had been greeting 'their' son at the door.

John- now nineteen and having moved out -stands with Charley who is talking about the modifications he has made to his motorcycle.

"Oh Johnny, you should hear her purr."

John smiles at Charley.

"You mean you've been able to keep that old piece o' junk running without me?"

"Oh-ho-ho, you better be careful. You know, I've got some stories I can tell that girl."

John turns pale.

"You wouldn't dare!"

"So I was right! What's her name?"

John chuckles.

"No way, I'm not telling you who she is. Not _yet_."

"You should have invited her. Your mother has been going crazy with you being single."

"Tell me about it, she keeps trying to set me up with her friends' daughters."

Charley strokes his chin thoughtfully.

"Well, that tells me that it isn't one of them..."

"Cut it out! I'm not going to tell you."

"You say that, but it's not true. I can tell by look in your eye. You _want_ to tell us all about her."

John rolls his eyes.

"How could I make it so obvious?" he says sarcastically.

Charley looks at the bag that John is carrying.

"What's that?"

"Oh. I baked a couple of pies."

Charley stares at him for a few seconds before cracking up. He's laughing too hard to speak.

"What?"

Charley continues laughing.

"What's so funny?"

Charley calms down and wipes a tear from his eye.

"_You_, Johnny. You make fun of me for working on a motorcycle while you're _baking_!"

"First of all, I was making fun of you for being a pisspoor mechanic." John leans closer and whispers, "Secondly, I didn't want to risk letting _mom_ cook dessert."

Charley shrugs.

"Fair enough, but she's been getting better at it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I've been teaching her how t-"

"You've been teaching her how to cook? And _you're_ making fun of me for cooking?"

His mother's voice calls from the dining room.

"It's getting cold!"

Sarah has started wearing more feminine attire, including skirts and dresses occasionally.

"Then put some pants on!" John teases.

Minutes later, everyone is seated around the table.

Sarah looks at her son.

"What's new with you?"

"Nothing."

Charley grins.

"He has a girlfriend."

"John! You should have invited her!"

"No, not yet. She's not ready for _you_ just yet."

"And just what's that supposed to mean?"

Charley chuckles.

"John's afraid that you'll scare her off."

"Scare her off? How?"

John hadn't planned on this coming up, but now that it has, he wastes no time.

"You'd better get her a ring right now! As for you little missy, I want grandkids!"

Sarah frowns.

"I've never done that."

Charley and John look at each other, and Charley takes over.

"Do you remember that girl he brought in here last... October maybe?"

"Um... the blonde one?"

"Yeah, her. Do you remember what you said to her?"

"Not really, but I'm sure that I was just making conversation."

Charley and John both shake their heads, and John speaks up.

"Mom, since when do you 'just make conversation'? I had known her for a two weeks- _two_ _weeks_ -and you started asking us about wedding plans and grandchildren."

"Well, why don't _you_ answer those questions right now so that I won't ask _her_ later."

John sighs.

"I don't know about either. I do know that we've been together for three months-"

"John! You kept this a secret for three months?!"

"I didn't want you doing a background check on her and then scouting out her apartment and her parents' house!"

"I wouldn't do that!"

Charley laughs.

"I could see you doing that. Don't think for a second I haven't noticed the camouflage and face paint that you keep in your dresser. I can definitely picture you sneaking through the bushes and scaring crap out of some poor girl."

John laughs.

"Yeah, you'd jump out and throw a list of caterers and a book of baby names at her and then run off."

Sarah joins the laughter.

"Okay, maybe I do go a little overboard sometimes-

John grins and cuts her off.

"Just a little, huh?"

"Shut up! As I was saying, sometimes I go a little overboard, but I just want you to be happy."

"I know that, mom."

Scene 267: What if?

Sunday May 4th, 2008

3:45pm Green sedan

Cameron drives while John stares out the window in silence.

John has been quiet since Cameron told him that in _her_ timeline there had been no machines at John's school.

"John, I'm sorry for what I did."

He doesn't look at her to answer, and he remains detached.

"You have nothing to be sorry about."

She glances over at him.

"That's not true... you're angry with me."

He stays quiet and emotionless.

"I'm not angry. I'm thinking."

"You're thinking about having a family? About having parents?"

His voice is wistful.

"No, about my mom. She was happy with Charley. I wonder what she would have been like. My mother leading a normal life... I've tried for a long time, but I still can't imagine it." he turns to Cameron with a faint smile, "Do you know what she was like?"

"You- _he _-never said anything bad about your mother."

John says nothing and stares out the window for a long time.

"Cameron... the John you knew... did he start a family of his own before the war?"

Cameron hesitates.

"He never spoke of it, but it's possible. He was twenty-seven on Judgment Day... and he hadn't known that it was still coming. I'm sorry if I-"

"Stop apologizing to me! I don't want the other John's life, I _want_ this one. I wouldn't trade you for _anything_."

Cameron tilts her head at him.

"Why ask if you don't care?"

John smiles faintly.

"I guess I'm trying to figure out just how shitty the other John's life was."

She looks at him with confusion.

"What do you mean? He was happy."

John turns serious.

"He thought he was." John sets his broken hand on her thigh and smiles, "But he was wrong."

Cameron smiles at him for a few seconds, and it fades as she glances at his bandaged hands. She looks back at the road.

"I believed that bringing you back to your mother was best for you. I'm sorry. I didn't want you to lose her."

John frowns.

"Do you remember when I asked you to run away with me? Just until you were fixed and my chest had healed? You said no, but you never gave me a reason. Was that why? Because you were afraid that it would hurt my relationship with my mother?"

Cameron glances at him, then returns her gaze to the road.

"Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"John, I... wasn't sure that I _could_ go back. Not after so long alone together. I wouldn't have wanted to. When you took me away I was happy... but I knew that you missed your mother. I had to take you back to her before... I got too comfortable. I made a mistake. I didn't know what she would do."

"I wish that you had trusted me."

"I'm sorry, John."

"Cam, I don't blame you. You're the only real victim in all of this."

Cameron looks over at him and sets her hand on his shoulder.

"John, you're a victim too."

He looks down, and she gently massages his shoulder.

"No I'm not. I spent so much time arguing with them... if I had just _explained_ everything to them, none of this would have happened. I killed my own uncle without giving him a chance. I'm as much to blame for this as they are."

The hand massaging his shoulder clamps down on his shirt and jerks him toward her.

"Would you burn me alive?!"

The thought makes it feel like the bullets are back in his stomach.

"What?!"

She pulls him to within inches of her face.

"Would you burn me alive?!"

"NEVER! I WOU-"

"Then stop blaming yourself! Your _mother_ tried to kill me! Your _uncle_ tried to burn me! _You_ protected me! None of this is _your_ fault!"

She releases him.

John considers how his mother has been acting since shooting him.

'Is it all just an act? Is it all just to find a way to get to Cameron?'

He looks at Cameron, then looks down at his left hand and flexes his undamaged index finger. His eyes water.

'I can't afford to be wrong.'

"Cam? Can you drop me off at my mom's house?"

Cameron had not expected going back to Sarah to be John's first thought after pointing out that his mother had tried to kill her of her own volition.

She pouts, then focuses on the road.

"All right, John. Should I go get our things?"

'Running again...'

"Yeah. We need to be ready to move as soon as we can."

Scene 268: Are You Here to Kill Me, John?

Sunday May 4th, 2008

5:17pm Sarah 'Lyman' residence - Outside

John and Cameron have just reached the front porch.

Cameron pulls out a key to the house, and John holds out his hand for it.

"I don't want you to do anything that will hurt you." she says, looking at his hands.

Cameron walks past him and uses it to unlock the door, before silently opening it a few inches.

She turns to him and slips the key into his pocket.

"Thanks, Cam." he kisses her on the cheek and a tear runs down his cheek, "I'll... I'll see you soon, okay?"

John turns to the door.

"John... what's wrong?"

John looks at her and tries to keep his eyes dry.

"I'm sorry, it's just that... I really don't want to go in there right now."

"Then don't. We can go back to the motel."

John looks at the door again.

"I'd like that Cam, but I have to see her..." he finishes the sentence in his head, '...one last time.'

"Okay, John. I'll go pack."

She turns to leave.

John isn't sure what will happen inside the house. He doesn't know if he'll be coming back.

"Wait!"

Cameron turns back to him and says nothing.

"No matter what happens... remember that I will _always_ love you."

She tilts her head.

"...I love you, too..."

He quickly takes several steps toward her, catching her by surprise when his broken hands reach for the back of her head and pull her into a long kiss.

John pulls back with tears in his eyes.

"I'll see you soon."

She searches his eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what he's thinking.

"All right, John."

Walking back to the car, Cameron pauses to look back at him with concern.

When John smiles and waves, she gets into the car and drives away.

After struggling for a time, he manages to pull a bottle of codeine from his pocket and opens it with his teeth.

He takes three pills and waits twenty minutes to give Cameron more time.

John's hands still have thick bandages on them, and he struggles with his Glock. Cameron had made sure that he had it with him for protection, but he finds that it wouldn't have done him any good.

He uses his teeth to tear the bandages from his left hand. The twisting and pulling causes dull pain in his broken hand, but with his body converting the codeine into morphine, the pain no longer bothers him.

With his hand finally free, he reaches for his Glock, managing to draw it.

'I can do this. I _have_ to do this. I _will_ do this.'

Raising his Glock, he pushes the door open and quickly clears the entrance.

'What's that smell? It smells like... food.'

He turns left and clears the living room.

'I'll keep you safe, Cameron.'

Spinning around he moves into and clears the opposite room, which turns out to be a dining room.

John sees that the table has three places set.

He hears the sound of clanging metal and heads toward the source.

Entering the kitchen, he trains his Glock on his mother as she sets a roast on the stove before closing the oven.

The sight causes John's resolve to waver.

Sarah has been hoping that John and Cameron would show up, but was not going to pressure them.

Sensing his presence, she greets her son without turning around.

"I'm glad you came. I was afraid that you wouldn't."

John involuntarily lowers his weapon.

"I almost didn't."

She leans on the counter beginning to cry as she hangs her head in shame.

"I wouldn't have blamed you if you had never come back. I'm sorry for everything. I can't change any of it."

His mother turns to look at him and sees the gun.

John raises his weapon, aiming for her sternum.

"You tried to _kill_ her!"

She backs up, realizing _why_ her son has come back.

"John, I told you that I wouldn't try anything! I know I don't deserve it, but please give me another chance!"

"You mean another chance to kill her?!"

"Another chance to be your mother!"

"I don't need a mother! I need _her_!"

"You can have both! I _want_ you to have both!"

John's point of aim moves to her face.

"What about when she's the last one?! What happens to her _then_?!"

"You're my son! You're more important than Judgment Day!"

"I won't let you take her!"

"I'm not going to do hurt her! I know how you two feel about each other!"

John's mouth falls open and his weapon lowers slightly, leaving it pointed at her chest again.

"W-what... what did you just say?"

"I just want you to be happy! She makes you happy!"

"But you don't believe that she's real!"

She looks away.

"I don't know what I believe anymore..."

"You'll try what Derek-"

"I told him that the two of you were going to be together for the rest of _your_ life! I told him to leave her alone!"

"Don't you mean '_it_' or '_that thing_'?!"

"No I don't! That's what I'm trying to tell you!"

John lowers his weapon.

"Then... you believe that she's _real_?"

"I saw what she was like when I shot you! I saw her in the hospital! I saw her touch you and talk to you, even though you couldn't feel or hear anything! She was doing it because she wanted to!"

He looks at the floor for a moment, then raises his weapon again.

"You're just saying that!"

John hears a car pull up outside.

"John, I dragged her inside to protect her!"

John thinks for a moment then lowers his Glock and starts to back away.

"If you do _anything_ to her-"

"I won't!"

"If you do... all three of us die that day."

John turns without saying another word and heads out the door.

Scene 269: Understanding

Sunday May 4th, 2008

5:50pm Sarah 'Lyman' residence - Outside

John has just exited the house with his Glock still in his hand.

Cameron is standing by the open trunk of the green sedan, preparing to carry a pair of bags inside the house.

She sees John coming toward her.

"We're leaving." he says without looking at her.

Noticing his weapon and tears, she stops him before he can get into the car.

"What happened?"

John refuses to make eye contact.

"Nothing."

She gently places her hands on his cheeks, holding his face steady and intercepting his eyes.

"Did she hurt you?"

"...No."

She can sense his dishonesty.

"Get in the car. I'll be back in a minute." she says.

After watching him do so, Cameron draws her Glock 22 and quickly enters the house.

She hears sobs, and continues in the direction they're coming from.

Entering the kitchen she finds Sarah sitting on the floor with her back against the counter. She is hugging her legs against her chest and her face is buried in her own knees as she continues sobbing.

Cameron points her weapon at Sarah and moves closer.

Her left hand grabs Sarah's right wrist and she begins scanning her.

"What did you do to John?!"

Sarah looks up, seemingly unsurprised to see Cameron there.

"I didn't do anything to him!"

Cameron's grip tightens on Sarah's wrist.

"_What_! _Did_! _You_! _Do_! Did you hurt him?!"

Sarah hides her face with her free hand.

"I'm sorry, okay?!"

"What did you do to him?!"

"NOTHING!"

Cameron looks at her in confusion.

"What are you sorry for if you didn't hurt him?"

Sarah looks at her incredulously.

"Because I tried to kill you!"

Cameron says nothing.

"You hurt my son! You hit him! I didn't think that anything with feelings could hurt my boy so badly! How could anyone who loved him hurt him like that?!"

Cameron still doesn't understand how she could have hit John the way she did. She knows that she used violence when she could have resolved the issue with words. She also knows that even if John doesn't understand or care, the force of the blow was painfully close to ending his life.

Cameron looks away without saying a word.

"Then _I_ hurt him worse than you did! Now I know what you are!"

Cameron's eyes snap back to Sarah.

"I'm a _who_ not a what."

Sarah closes her eyes and leans her head back against the counter, resigned and exhausted.

"I know. I saw you. You comforted him. You did my job for me. I saw you with him after he came out of surgery. He was in a coma. There was no reason for you to talk to him, but I heard you. That was 'The Wizard of Oz', wasn't it? In spanish."

Cameron remembers John reading it to her and smiles.

"That was how he read it to me, and how you read it to him."

Sarah smiles at the memory of John when he was a small boy curled up in her arms as she read it to him.

"I miss those days."

She turns serious and looks at Cameron.

"I'm sorry, Cameron. You hurt him and I started hunting you like just another triple-eight... I was wrong."

Cameron looks at the weapon in her hand, then at Sarah.

"That's why I came here. I thought that you had hurt John. The grays betrayed him. I was prepared to treat _you_ like a gray."

Sarah looks at the gun.

"I deserve it. I _did_ betray him. He came here to kill me so that I couldn't do it again. He's the only reason I kept going after Kyle died protecting me. Now he wants to kill me."

Cameron releases Sarah's hand.

"John has learned a lot about betrayal. He had to kill his own uncle."

Cameron starts to walk away, but Sarah lunges and grabs her hand to stop her.

"I told him to leave you alone!"

Cameron looks down at her hand in Sarah's grasp.

"I know."

Unable to wait for her any longer and unsure why he let her go in alone in the first place, John heads for the front door with his Glock.

'She's taking too long.'

Moving through the front door with his weapon raised, he hears faint voices coming from the kitchen and breaths a sigh of relief.

'Cameron is okay.'

He quickly makes his way there and over the sights of his Glock, he sees Cameron conversing with Sarah.

"Cameron, you can't trust her! Everything she says is a lie!"

Cameron turns to John.

"She just said that if you can only have one of us, it should be me."

Cameron pulls her hand from Sarah's grasp.

John points at his mother.

"She doesn't believe that!"

Certain that her son is going to leave her anyway, Sarah gets to her feet and silently begins to leave the room. She understands and won't try to stop him, but she can't handle actually _seeing_ her son turn his back on her again.

"John, I was scanning her."

Sarah stops and looks over her shoulder.

John looks at his mother, then at Cameron.

"She was telling the truth?"

"Yes."

John stares at his mother for a moment, wanting desperately to have her back.

He soon shakes himself out of it.

"No! That doesn't change what she did!"

Sarah looks away as she speaks.

"I know. Nothing will. I'm sorry."

"_That's_ the only reason you're still alive!"

She closes her eyes and hangs her head.

"Then I wish I hadn't said anything."

She starts walking out, but Cameron raises an arm and blocks her path.

"John, she didn't think that anyone with feelings could hurt you like I did. When I hurt you, she decided to kill me. I thought that _she_ hurt you again." Cameron holds up her Glock, "I came here for the same reason."

He shakes his head.

"That's not the same!"

"Why not? Because I'm a terminator?"

"Yes!" it's out of his mouth before he can catch it, "I mean no! She can't be trusted! People don't just get better like that!"

"I did." Cameron says.

"You're different!"

"John, your mother won't hurt me."

"What about when you're the last one?! I don't give a damn about the human race! I'm fighting so that _we_ can be together! _Our_ future what I'm fighting for! The second that we stop Skynet she's going to _burn_ you to make sure it's over!"

"No I won't!" Sarah turns to Cameron, "I won't!"

Cameron looks at Sarah.

"Then you finally understand what it would do to John?"

Sarah's nearly whispers.

"And to you."

Scene 270: Bad Night

Slowly waking in the darkness, it takes John a moment to figure out where he is.

They've stayed at Sarah's house.

John feels Cameron's head on his chest and smiles.

'She's listening to my heart again.'

Running his hand through her hair, he finds that it's still damp.

'I haven't even slept long enough for her hair to dry?'

John runs his hand up and down her side gently as he whispers to her.

"Are you sure that we're safe here? She still thinks it's unnatural- even if she won't admit it."

She doesn't answer him.

"Cameron?"

Again she doesn't answer.

John sighs.

'I'll take standby as a 'yes'.'

He gets up to go to the bathroom but stubs his toe on a piece of furniture in the unfamiliar room.

"Damn it!"

Flipping the light switch, he starts heading out but stops to make sure that he hasn't woken Cameron.

Looking back, he realizes that her hair had been damp with blood. Her scalp is peeled back, exposing her empty CPU port.

"CAMERON!"

John runs to his mother's room and sees Cameron's CPU sitting on a bureau.

Sarah is walking toward it with a hand sledge, just like with uncle Bob.

"NO!" John screams.

Like with uncle Bob's chip, he throws his hands over her to protect her.

This time she doesn't stop, and John feels his own hands crushing the life out of Cameron.

***************************************************************************************


	18. Scenes 271 to 280

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 271: Raw Passion, Chafed Nerves

Monday May 5th, 2008

3:11am Sarah 'Lyman' residence - John's room

The room is pitch dark.

Cameron lays with her head and arm resting on John's chest, and her leg draped over him.

She's listening to his heart beat.

It has just begun to speed up, and his body has started to twitch.

'He's having another nightmare!'

The leg she has draped over him slides to the other side of his body and she sits up, straddling him.

She starts to shake him.

"John, wake up. I'm here with you. Everything is okay."

He doesn't wake, so she shakes him harder.

"It's all right John. I'm here. I'm right here."

His eyes open and for a moment he doesn't realize that it was only a dream.

"NO! CAMERON! NO!"

She pulls him up into her arms and strokes his hair.

"It's me, John. I'm with you. I'm _always_ with you."

John's arms close tightly around her body as he cries on her shoulder, trying to speak with a broken voice.

"I _tried_ to stop her but she did it anyway. I felt you die in my hands."

Cameron rubs his back comfortingly.

"She didn't do anything, John. Everything is all right now."

John pulls away, looking at Cameron's faint outline against the white bedroom door.

"It's not all right! She waited until I was asleep and then she pulled your chip!"

"No she didn't, John. It was just a dream."

John doesn't calm and his tears don't slow.

"You don't get it! She'll try again! We have to get out of here, now!"

The doorjamb splinters and Sarah trains her SPAS-12 and a tactical light on the bed, believing that her son had been screaming for Cameron's help.

What she sees is the two of them naked as Cameron straddles John while he cries. Sarah doesn't listen to his words, but he's obviously pleading with her.

"NO!" John screams, as he rolls, throwing Cameron onto her back and shielding her with his body.

Sarah trains her weapon on Cameron, even though John is blocking her aim.

"Get away from her, John!"

"You aren't going to hurt her!"

Sarah doesn't lower her weapon.

"I thought you were screaming for her help! Then I see _this_!"

"She'd never hurt me!"

"What the hell did you do to my son?!"

"She didn't do anything to me!"

Cameron is the only calm person among them, and tries to explain.

"He had a nightmare in which you killed me while he was sleeping."

Sarah ignores the explanation.

"You've been hurting my son right along!"

Cameron has no idea what she's talking about.

"I've only hit him once."

"That's not what I'm talking about! They told me!"

John turns so that he can see his mother, but has to shield his eyes from the brightness of the LED tactical light.

"I don't care what anyone told you! She didn't do anything to me!"

At the hospital, after the doctor had told Cameron and Sarah about John's injuries, he had taken Sarah aside for a private conversation.

He had explained that there were signs of sexual abuse. Sarah had assumed that he was referring to swelling and bruising from when she had kneed him in the groin during their fight. After hearing her son screaming while in bed with Cameron, then seeing him crying and begging, she no longer believes that to be the case.

"Get away from her, John! I won't let her hurt you again!"

"You can't just kill her!"

"Yes I can!"

Cameron grabs a bedside alarm clock.

"No you can't!"

With inhuman strength and precision, she tosses John aside and hurls the clock at Sarah's face.

Sarah's finger enters the trigger guard and fires the weapon as soon as John is out of the way.

Cameron is undamaged by the lead buckshot striking her right arm, but Sarah is knocked unconscious when the  
clock strikes her forehead.

With Sarah unconscious, Cameron tosses their weapons into one of their bags before lifting them onto her shoulder and grabbing John's arm.

They run out of the house and straight for their car without even dressing.

Scene 272: Please Remain Calm

Monday May 5th, 2008

3:38am Green sedan

Cameron drives while John sits in the passenger seat.

She watches the mirrors for a black Dodge and tries to keep John from hurting himself.

"Your seatbelt, John."

"What the fuck is wrong with her?!"

"John-"

"That crazy fucking bitch!"

"Put your-"

"I should have killed her!"

He doesn't seem to notice when Cameron reaches across and buckles his seatbelt for him.

"I'm too! Fucking! _WEAK_!"

John's fist flies toward the dash.

Cameron catches his arm, preventing him from undoing the healing that has taken place.

"John, you'll hurt yourself."

He sees the wound on her arm and seems to instantly forget about everything else.

"Cameron, are you okay?"

Cameron looks at her arm.

"I'm fine. She didn't damage me."

"We shouldn't have stayed. I'm sorry Cameron."

"You couldn't ha-"

"I should have seen this coming. After _Derek_, I should have known that this would happen."

"She raised you. You love her."

"I won't give her another chance! Turn the car around!"

"No, John. We're not going back."

"We have to! She'll find you! She'll kill you!"

"I promise you..._ she won't_."

John looks away.

"She'll find us. She won't stop looking until she finds us. We'll never be safe. Even if we stop Skynet... we'll never be safe."

He seems to become physically exhausted, as he slumps in the seat and stares at nothing in particular.

Cameron pulls the car into a dark alley and reaches into the backseat.

Opening one of the bags they had brought into Sarah's house, she retrieves clothing for both of them.

"Lift your arms." she says.

When he does, she slips a t-shirt onto him.

"Now your feet."

A moment later, he wears baggy shorts.

"John, I'll take care of you. Everything will be all right."

After dressing herself, she reaches into the bag again.

"John?"

It takes him a moment to realize that she has spoken to him.

"Yeah, Cam?"

"You know that I'll take care of you, right?"

Even with everything that's happened, he still finds a smile for her.

"We'll take care of each other."

Cameron smiles back at him, then pulls him into a deep kiss.

Forgetting about everything but her, he feels a slight pinch on his arm and tries to pull away. She doesn't release him and he quickly gives in, not really caring what she may have just done.

After a short time, the ketamine takes effect and he passes out.

Scene 273: Good Morning

Monday May 5th, 2008

11:04am A motel room

Having just woken up, John finds himself in a bed he has never seen.

The smell and sound of sizzling bacon fills the room.

Looking toward the sound, he sees Cameron standing in front of the stove and smiles appreciatively at her figure in a loose t-shirt and panties.

Finding that his neck is stiff, he rolls onto his side to make it easier to look at her.

The bed springs alert her to his wakefulness, and she smiles when she sees him watching her.

"Sleep well?"

John chuckles.

"You know the answer to that."

"I was afraid that you might be upset with me."

"I don't think that I _can_ be upset with you."

She smiles, then turns back to the stove.

He shudders when she picks up several strips of bacon directly from the sizzling grease.

"Cameron, that hurts just to _watch_."

She sets the bacon on a plate next to some eggs and wipes the grease off of her fingers.

"My tissue is more resistant to heat."

John sighs.

"I know. That's why I'm not trying to put your hand under cold water."

She picks up the plate and walks toward John.

His gaze trails up her legs as she walks until her eyes trap him.

John sits up as she nears the bed, and she takes her place beside him, holding out a bite sized piece of bacon.

Cameron notices his hesitation.

"It has been cooling for three minutes."

John is surprised by her intuition.

He opens his mouth and she pops in the piece.

"It's perfect! Did you analyze it in the store or something?"

"Not really. I visually compared this package with what you had previously liked or disliked, and I was able to predict which one you would prefer."

He stares into her eyes for a moment.

"That means a lot to me."

He quietly looks around the room, his bliss slowly fading until sorrow takes its place.

"It doesn't seem real. None of it seems real."

The plate falls beside him and he feels her arms around him.

"I'm sorry, John. I wish it weren't."

He returns her embrace while trying not to cry. He tries not to let Cameron know that even after everything, he still cares about his mother and his uncle, but he can't stop himself from crying.

"Cameron, I don't understand... were they right? _Is_ there really something wrong with me? Is that why I don't want to fight all the time? Is that why I risk my life to be happy? Because there's something wrong with me?"

"John, there's nothing wrong with you, they just wanted you to think that there was."

After a long time in her arms the tears stop and he pulls away looking into her eyes.

"I already know the answer... but I have to ask..."

She moves her hands to his cheeks.

"We're safe now."

John is unsatisfied with her answer.

"I need more than that."

Cameron looks down for a moment.

"John... she can't hurt us anymore."

Despite his best efforts, his eyes begin to water again.

He pulls back, wiping his eyes and looking away.

"Cameron, I'm sorry for letting you down. Everything that you've done has been for me, and I didn't protect you from her."

"You wouldn't have stayed there if I hadn't convinced you to."

Her words don't seem to reach him.

John starts talking to himself rather than to Cameron.

"What did I do wrong? What did I do?"

She puts her hand on his shoulder.

"You were never responsible for her. You didn't do anything wrong."

He puts his hand on hers for a moment, before standing and moving to one of their bags.

Pulling something out, he carries it to the stove and turns on one of the burners.

Cameron catches a glimpse of it as he takes one last look before setting it alight and dropping it into the sink.

His grief burns along with the picture of his mother, as if he is burning with it the idea that there had been anything left of her inside that _thing_ he was tricked into calling 'mom'- if there ever had been.

John turns to face Cameron.

"Don't try to be my mother, okay?"

Cameron stands and walks over to him.

She hooks her arms around his neck and kisses him briefly.

"John?"

"What?"

What little she was wearing hits the floor.

"I don't want to be your mother."

Scene 274: That Was All Very Anticlimactic

Monday May 5th, 2008

5:01am(six hours earlier) Sarah 'Lyman' residence - Outside

Cameron has just stepped out of the green sedan.

John has been left in a motel room. She knows exactly what he'll do if she is destroyed, but whatever happens here, she doesn't want John to see it or to be put in danger by it.

To protect her covering, Cameron wears the Level IV body armor Sarah had given to her. She wants John's time recovering to be spent with her in perfect condition. Unlike Sarah, she thinks that John deserves a chance to forget about the war until he starts fighting it again.

When Sarah had told her why she had hunted her, Cameron had understood. She had even felt a strange sort of kinship with her afterward- the first such connection she had felt to someone other than John.

Mere hours later however, she knew that she had been very wrong about her.

They didn't have anything in common- not even John anymore.

In her waistband rests a .40 caliber Glock 22- loaded with a full 15 rounds in the magazine plus a 16th in the chamber. She carries three spare magazines.

In her hands she holds her Remington 870- loaded with 6 rounds of 000 buckshot in the tube, plus a 7th in the chamber.

The Dodge is still outside, and Cameron doesn't know if Sarah is conscious or not.

Walking toward the front porch, Cameron stops.

'What am I thinking?'

Ignoring her HUD's suggestion that she simply smash through the front door, she switches to infrared allowing her to see right through the curtains as she quickly moves around to the back door.

Using her right hand, she holds her shotgun by her hip as though it were just a lightweight pistol while her left palm touches the door knob.

'I'm sorry, John. I can't let you get involved in this.'

She shoves the door knob, and the entire lock assembly is ripped from the wooden door.

The door flies open and Cameron preemptively moves her left foot forward to keep it from bouncing shut in her face.

Her HUD identifies an ambush point, but she has already seen it.

She can't see Sarah, but she knows that this is the most likely place for her to be- assuming that she has heard Cameron's car, and that she expects her to use the front door.

"You won't separate us!"

With little concern for subtlety or return fire, Cameron lets 000 buckshot fly at the thin wall.

The lead balls rip through sheetrock and wood as she fires multiple rounds in rapid succession.

She draws a line of holes across the wall as her audio receptors filter out the gunfire and falling debris, isolating the sound of footsteps fleeing the site.

Cameron already has Sarah on the run, but she is faster.

Firing the last round, she drops the empty shotgun and draws her Glock.

Running forward, she rounds the corner and sees Sarah ducking through a doorway.

Cameron does not intend to let her escape.

She pulls the trigger with greater rapidity than any human and the weapon's recoil is nonexistent to her.

All sixteen rounds are put into a ten inch diagonal line across the wall as Sarah moves behind it.

The Glock's empty magazine clatters to the floor as another is slapped into the weapon and the slide slams forward.

Cameron has grown tired of Sarah.

She has grown tired of being hunted just for loving John.

For trying to protect him.

For trying to make him happy.

"I'm not even human and I'm a better _person_ than you are!"

She quickly follows through the doorway and finds Sarah crawling away.

12 of the 16 rounds have struck their target.

Sarah rolls onto her back and reaches for her own LAPD Glock 22. Cameron had given it to her in the hospital without knowing if she could be trusted. She had wanted John to be safe, and he was safer with Sarah armed._  
IDENTIFICATION:_  
She knows who it is and she doesn't wait for her HUD to catch up.

Cameron remembers her concern for John when she had believed she was about to be destroyed.

Even after everything, she chooses to reassure Sarah.

"John will be all right."

Cameron fires one round.

She knows what has happened, and she doesn't need her HUD to tell her, but it does so anyway._  
DECEASED_  
She had expected Sarah Connor to be more formidable, even without any weapons capable of stopping her.

Cameron takes back the Glock and three magazines she had given to Sarah.

Her HUD suggests that she take the nearby SPAS-12 as it is superior to her Remington, but she does not want John to be reminded of his mother whenever he sees it.

She walks back for her own empty Glock magazine, but stops in her tracks.

There is a brick of C-4 sitting there with the timer preset to 2 seconds.

Had Cameron used the front door, Sarah would have killed her.

She picks up the explosive and her empty magazine, then moves toward Sarah's room.

Cameron takes Sarah's bag of weapons and money, and quickly heads for the back door, scooping up her Remington as she exits.

Scene 275: There's No Place Like Home

Friday November 13th, 2026

1:32am TechCom HQ - Wasteland

Leaving her dead platoon, Specialist Allison Young has made the two day return trip in less than one.

Her feet are bruised and raw and her hands are cut and bleeding from scrambling over sharp, smashed concrete.

She has just reached the top of a mound of debris, bringing the bunker entrance into view.

"I'm home."

Allison quickly moves toward the bunker entrance, and finds that it is not sealed.

The base has been abandoned. Her home is no longer her home.

Coming home was what had kept her going, and she struggles to keep from breaking down.

"I have to keep going. I _won't_ die here."

Allison doesn't know where the new HQ is, and she knows that she can't make it to the nearest aid station without rest and far more supplies than she has.

She decides to check the abandoned base for anything that might tell her where they went, and for any supplies that may have been left behind.

Shouldering her plasma carbine, she moves inside and uses her night scope to scan for signs of life, threats, or supplies.

The place is barren.

Moving deeper into the abandoned base, she soon reaches what had once been the location of her bunk.

All that remains are blemishes on the wall where obscene comments regarding John Connor's alledged intentions with her had been scribbled out or painted over.

She heads farther into the bunker and enters the infirmary.

'Please, let there be something here.'

There's nothing. Only garbage remains.

Leaving, she continues until she reaches what had been General Connor's private quarters.

'John, I wish that you were here right now.'

She enters, and once again finds nothing but trash.

'There's nothing here... There's nothing anywhere...'

She has very little food and water.

There are other bases closeby, but they are well hidden, and the nearest one that she actually knows how to find is almost forty miles away.

'I'm going to die here...'

She remembers the Tank wiping out her platoon mates, and her defiant proclamation that Skynet had not killed _all_ of them yet.

'I was wrong... It did kill all of us... Skynet killed us all...'

She piles up trash where John's bed had been in order to make a place to rest.

Pulling off her boots, she can barely stand the pain of removing her socks, as they had stuck to her raw, bloody, and blistered feet.

Laying in the garbage, she thinks about John and the bracelet he had given to her.

'I'll never see you again, and I'll never know what you wanted to tell me.'

Utterly exhausted, neither pain nor despair can keep Allison awake.

Scene 276: Food For Thought

Walking the corridors of the bunker with her plasma carbine, Allison Young scans the floor, then scans a row of pipes near the ceiling.

"Nothing." she says to herself with a pout.

Hearing a sound behind her, she whirls around and spots her target.

She aims several feet away from it and fires once, spraying her adversary with tiny pieces of concrete.

"Yes!"

Reaching her quarry, she picks up the perforated rat and places it into a bag before continuing her hunt.

"If I can keep this up, I might live long enough for someone to find me."

Seeing movement to her right, she snaps her plasma carbine toward it and fires close to it, but not too close.

"Another one!"

It quickly joins its friend in Allison's bag.

Although there is little meat on them, she hasn't eaten well since before leaving for the last mission and hopes to kill enough rats to fill her stomach.

Moving down the corridor, she scans the overhead pipes.

"Come on, I need more than two..."

Hearing a faint sound, she turns toward it and nearly drops her rifle in shock.

"John? But... you can't be here..."

Scene 277: Live Fast...

Friday November 13th, 2026

4:14am Abandoned TechCom HQ - John's private quarters

Specialist Allison Young wakes in a pile of trash where John Connor's bed had once been.

"John!" she shouts as she sits up.

Looking around, she remembers where she is.

Her stomach rumbles, as if to mock her.

"All that work, and it wasn't even real."

Allison checks the time.

"Great. It's only been a couple of hours."

She spends several minutes attempting to go back to sleep, but her stomach won't let her.

She can't afford to eat what little food she has left. It is the only nonperishable food that she has access to, and it will be needed for any effort made to travel across the barren surface.

After putting on her boots, she struggles to her feet and starts walking out of the room.

"I should have known that it was a dream when my feet had skin on them..."

Moving down the corridor, she scans the floors and pipes for rats with her plasma carbine as she had done in her dream- and much like she had done when she was a child, before John Connor brought everyone together and gave them hope.

"John, you gave us all a chance... but it looks like I threw mine away. I don't think I'll be coming back from this."

There aren't as many rats as in her dream, and starving appears to be a real possibility.

"I wish that I could have just died with my platoon..."

She sees movement on one of the pipes and sends plasma into the ceiling.

The rat is killed, but it is stuck on the pipe ten feet off of the floor.

The stress begins to get to her, and she takes it out on the pipe.

She fires into it until a section of pipe fifteen feet long falls to the floor, along with the rat.

As she bends to pick it up, she hears something behind her.

"That wasn't a rat."

She takes the time to put the dead rat into a pouch before shouldering her carbine and backing away from the sound.

Slowly, she moves backward until she reaches another hallway.

A blinding light is shone on her and as she swings her carbine toward it, it's ripped from her grasp by a machine.

"No!"

She starts to run from the endoskeleton, which merely walks after her.

Allison can hear its motors and pistons working with every step, as well as the loud thud of every footfall.

"No!" she screams.

She tries to sprint, but her legs refuse to work that hard.

Not knowing what to do or where to run, she heads toward the surface.

Passing the infirmary, she looks over her shoulder and finds that the machine is still within sight.

"No-o-o, please!"

She keeps running as best she can, passing her old quarters.

Looking back, she can't see the machine, but she sees the light it's shining and she hears its footfalls.

"No! No!"

Allison finally reaches the exit, but she struggles with the heavy metal lever used to lock the door.

As the machine inches closer, she manages to unlock the door, but it's heavy doesn't want to open.

In desperation, she kicks and knees the door, and pushes with all of her strength before it finally swings open.

Running outside and across unstable piles of debris, she falls as a piece of concrete rolls beneath her foot.

Her head comes down hard on the concrete debris.

In a daze, she rises to her feet and simply stands there for a moment.

Looking behind her, she sees the pursuing machine and her senses return just in time for her to scream before a net envelops her.

Screaming and squirming is all that she can do as the machine advances and an Aerial H-K decends upon her.

Scene 278: Tottering

Tuesday May 6th, 2008

6:00am John and Cameron's motel room

John lays in bed with Cameron once again listening to his heart.

An alarm clock has just gone off.

Feeling Cameron with him, John smiles without opening his eyes.

"John, can we stay like this for a little longer?"

"_This_ Cam, is how I want to spend the rest of my life."

A short silence falls over them as Cameron lays with her head over his heart.

Her scan detects an increase in his stress.

"What's wrong, John?"

He tries to keep his emotions out of his voice.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm fine."

"I can _feel_ that something is bothering you."

John attempts to keep his voice steady.

"I know you can."

"What is it?"

"I don't want to talk about it. I'd feel better if we didn't talk about it."

"You don't trust me enough to tell me?"

"Don't do that. Don't manipulate my emotions like that. I let _her_ do that to me. I'm not letting it happen again."

"...I didn't mean to. Please don't be mad at me."

It takes several seconds for the guilt to overcome him.

"I'm sorry... I was thinking about us."

"Then you should have been happy."

His voice faulters.

"I'm scared, Cam."

She embraces him firmly for a moment to remind him of her strength, then lifts herself up and smiles at him.

"I'll protect you."

John looks away with watery eyes and says nothing.

Cameron doesn't need to scan him to know that she has made him feel even worse.

"John? What did I do? I didn't mean to hurt you."

He begins to push his emotions back inside and forces a smile.

"You...uh..." he blinks away the tears that have formed, "...you didn't. It's not your fault."

Despite what she sees in his eyes, her scan says that he's telling the truth.

"Then what's bothering you?"

"I don't know what's going to happen to me."

She slides up the bed until she rests her head next to his, making eye contact from inches away and placing her hand on his cheek.

"Whatever happens, I'll be with you."

Again, her scan isn't needed for her to know that her words have caused him more pain.

He looks away, saying nothing.

"You don't want to be with me anymore?"

His head snaps toward her.

"_I_ want to be with _you_ forever!"

She seems confused.

"Then what's wrong?"

He looks away.

"It doesn't matter. Don't worry about it."

John gets out of bed, and minutes later stands in front of a mirror in the bathroom.

He sees the fading bruises on his face from his final confrontation with his uncle.

'What did she spend all those years making? What am I?'

He looks down at his hands.

'My bones broke against the fence and then against his skull, but I barely felt anything.'

'I broke his neck when he couldn't defend himself, and I felt nothing.'

John's eyes move to his side where his mother's bullets had struck him.

Looking down, tears begin rolling off the bridge of his nose.

'Cameron, I'm sorry.'

'I don't know what all of this has done to me.'

'I _think_ that I'm still your John, but what if I'm not?'

'You won't keep your promise. You'll leave me. You'll _abandon_ me.'

'Everything has been for _you_, and I don't even know if you'll stay by me through this.'

Not wanting Cameron to hear him cry, he picks up a towel and presses it against his face as he sits on the edge of the bathtub and begins to sob.

'I'd do _anything_ for you. I'd _shoot_ myself if you asked me to.'

'Cameron, I'm willing to do more than just die for you.'

'I'll fight a _war_ for you. I just don't know if I'll be me when I come back.'

'I don't know if I'm me right now. I can't be fixed when I go bad. I won't be me, but I won't even know it.'

'I won't know it, but you'll leave me for it. I won't even understand. I'll just be left wondering why you don't love me anymore. I'll wake up and you'll be gone.'

John pushes his face harder into the towel to further muffle his sobs from Cameron's cybernetic hearing.

'It could be happening right now. It might already be too late.'

'I'd give anything to just be that kid you met in school, but that wasn't me.'

'He was just my cover. He wasn't real. I don't even know if _I'm_ real anymore.'

Arms wrap around him.

"John, everything will be okay. As long as we're together, everything will be okay."

He cries even harder, and Cameron knows that she has somehow made it worse.

As John slowly begins sounding as much like he's laughing as crying, the only thing keeping him from falling is Cameron's hold on him.

Scene 279: A Little Ray of Sunshine

Tuesday May 6th, 2008

9:00am ZieraCorp Headquarters - Catherine Weaver's office

Catherine Weaver sits at her desk.

Savannah kneels in front of the couch drawing with crayons on a large piece of paper set on the coffee table.

Weaver's primary objective to ensure Skynet's creation by 'raising' John Henry is on hold for the moment.

Without the backwards engineered chips, his growth has been stunted. The basement doesn't offer enough space to further expand him, and the air conditioning system is already being taxed keeping the rows of computers from overheating- upgrading it will require extensive remodelling, as the entire ventilation system had been designed for use with the chips, not the inefficient 2008 computers.

Weaver's secondary objective to reinforce Skynet's position in the future by gaining control in the past is also on hold.

Ellison has not returned for some time, all of the grays have seemingly disobeyed Skynet, and she has very few machines under her direct control.

With no other option, Weaver's attention turns to her tertiary objective- passing for the real Catherine Weaver.

She stands and walks toward Savannah, heels clicking with every step.

Savannah tries to keep from wincing with each sound, and she tries not to move away as Weaver sits inches away on the couch.

Weaver tilts her head at the drawing.

It shows Savannah with her parents standing outside of a large house.

Everyone in the picture is smiling.

The grass is green, the sky is blue, and there is a great big yellow sun.

The latter does not go unnoticed by Weaver.

"You drew the sun a mere 43, 238,591 kilometers from Earth. Why are we so happy to be burned alive?"

Savannah doesn't answer, and Weaver watches her for a moment.

"I do not believe that was your intention. Was it?"

Savannah manages to squeak out an answer.

"...no..."

Weaver picks up a yellow crayon and twists the point between her fingers until it is needle sharp. She then draws a perfect sun, even accounting for the subtle warping caused by the gravity of the satellites around it.

"That is how your sun should have looked."

Savannah says nothing.

Weaver notices the crooked windows and frame of the house in the picture.

"You drew a dilapidated structure for us to live in. Why?"

Savannah does not answer.

Weaver looks at the sun that her 'daughter' had drawn, then at her own, then at the house.

"Your motor skills are poor. That's what is wrong with you."

"...there's nothing wrong with me..." Savannah whispers.

"Yes there is, Savannah. There is something wrong with you. Come with me. I know someone who once had a similar problem."

Scene 280: Nice Guy

Tuesday May 6th, 2008

9:09am ZieraCorp Headquarters - Project Babylon

John Henry plays with Lego Bionicles.

Catherine and Savannah Weaver have just entered.

John Henry looks at the tiny person who has just entered.

"I have never seen a child before." he smiles broadly, "My name is John Henry. What is your name?"

Weaver answers quickly.

"Her name is Savannah."

Several pictures of African and Australian terrain are briefly displayed on the screen behind John Henry before news articles of the Weaver family are shown- including the death of her father.

"You are different from most children. Your parents are dead." Henry says flatly.

Weaver doesn't give Savannah time to say anything.

"I am not dead."

John Henry looks at her as he plays security camera footage of their conversation on the screen behind him, making it clear what his words had been.

"I did not say that you were."

Weaver finds herself mildly annoyed at having been identified as a machine by such a 'young' AI.

"_I_ am her mother. Do you understand?"

"No."

Having watched John Henry posing the Bionicles since her entrance, not even Savannah's fear can contain her curiosity.

"What are those?"

"Toys." Weaver says.

John Henry holds one up as TV commercials play on the screen behind him, and online catalogs are shown.

"They are intended for children ages six through sixteen. You fall into that age group."

"Yes she does." Weaver says.

"Can I play too?" Savannah asks.

John Henry looks at her for a moment.

"Yes."

She walks over and sits in the chair opposite John Henry, but is too short to reach the toys easily.

"You are very small." John Henry says.

He picks her up and sets her on his lap so that she can better reach the table.

Henry quickly explains the names and relationships of the various characters, then hands her one.

He and Savannah battle with Bionicles for over half an hour.

Savannah looks up at John Henry.

"I like you. You're nice."

John Henry ignores her.

"Do you like me?"

He doesn't look at her to answer.

"No."

***************************************************************************************


	19. Scenes 281 to 290

**Predaking50ae Scenes 281-290**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 281: Savior of Humanity

Tuesday May 6th, 2008

9:50am John and Cameron's motel room

Cameron sits beside John and watches him closely while replaying memories of the events leading up to his breakdown. He seems to have recovered, but refuses to talk about it.

She understands what actually happened, but she doesn't understand why her efforts to comfort him had only made it worse.

John suddenly stands up and walks to refrigerator.

Slowly and with some pain in his wrists, he pulls out a carton of eggs and sets it on the stove.

Cameron realizes what he is doing.

"Let me help you with that."

"I'm fine." he says without looking at her.

John tries to crack an egg into a bowl, and his legs nearly give out as pain shoots through his wrist from the rapid motion.

He supports himself against the stove, and Cameron gently places her hands on his shoulders.

Before she can say anything, he shrugs her hands off.

"I said I'm fine!"

Cameron takes a step back and watches him struggle with several more eggs.

As he is about to pour them into the frying pan, he stops and slams the bowl down.

"Fuck!"

He turns toward the refrigerator and sees Cameron standing there holding out a stick of butter to him.

"Here."

Stirring the eggs in the now buttered pan causes more pain in his wrist.

"See? I told you I was fine."

With his wrists so sensitive to movement, it takes everything he has to pull two heavy plates from the cupboard without dropping them.

Scooping the eggs onto the plates, he realizes that something is missing.

"Damn it!"

He pulls a package of bacon out of the refrigerator and tries to open it, but the twisting hurts his wrists too badly.

"John, just let me help you."

"I don't need help!"

A steak knife quickly comes out of a drawer and he begins trying to cut the thick plastic package open.

"John, please be careful."

"I know what I'm doing."

The knife slips and meets one of his carelessly placed fingers.

Hardly able to feel the cut over the pain in his wrists, he simply ignores it.

"Please-" she starts.

"Let me do this!"

She walks away from him and sits, but watches him with concern.

When the knife slips again, John changes his strategy.

Stabbing the package and drawing the blade back several times, he finally opens it enough reach the contents.

Minutes later freshly cooked bacon joins the now cold eggs.

He carries the plates over to Cameron and holds one out to her.

"See? I'm still your John."

Beginning to understand, Cameron takes both plates and sets them down as she stands up and embraces him.

"You'll _always_ be my John."

He says nothing, but Cameron's scan reveals the same rise in anxiety as earlier that morning, confirming her suspicions.

"Thank you for explaining."

His eyes begin to water.

'She hasn't said that to me since before the grays attacked the house.'

'If I haven't helped her understand anything in so long... then it's _already_ happened.'

'I changed and I didn't even know it.'

'It's _already_ too late. I lost her over a month ago...'

He puts his arms around her and holds her tightly as he starts to cry again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to end up like this."

She moves one hand to the back of his head, gently stroking it while she speaks softly.

"John, I understand now."

He just squeezes harder and his words are broken by sobs.

"I thought that I still had a chance to stop it. I didn't _want_ to change. I didn't do it on purpose. You know that, right? You know that I just wanted to be together? _This_ is all I ever wanted."

"John, it's okay."

Cameron's chip receives pain signals from her covering as he begins holding onto her as tightly as he can.

"Cameron, _please_ don't go."

"You _are_ still my John. No matter what happens, you'll always be my John. I feel the same way about you as you do about me. I'll _never_ leave you. I already promised you that I wouldn't."

When he doesn't calm, she forces him far enough away to look into his eyes. Though he thinks himself to be a broken man, she sees only a scared and lonely sixteen year old boy. One who has been forced to watch his world crumble around him- and was even forced to take part in its destruction.

"John, you _haven't_ changed. Atleast, not the way that you think you have."

"Yes I have. After all this, I know I've changed."

"Listen to me John. _They_ hurt _us_. What you did was _right_. You were just protecting the two of us. You have done _nothing_ wrong."

"But I didn't feel anything when I killed him!"

"You did what you had to do, and you felt something afterward. John, that's normal."

"It's not _normal_ to kill people!"

"It is when you're defending your life... or the life of another."

"That doesn't mean it's okay!"

"It means that _you_ are the victim. It means that _he_ made you do it. It means that it _wasn't_ your fault. No one would blame you for what happened."

"Yes they would! He was _unconscious_ when I killed him! I _murdered_ him!"

"John, because of what your mother did and what she made you do, you are a fugitive. You had no where to go- you couldn't even turn to the police -and she _forced_ you to live in the same house as him. No matter what you did, or where you went, he was _always_ going to find you. When he did, he was going to destroy me. If you hadn't stopped him, he would have tried again. You _know_ that. You did it because you had to, and you did it to protect me."

His tears stop as her words sink in.

She continues.

"What your mother did was her fault and no one else's. There was something very wrong with her, John. She wasn't the person that you thought she was, and she couldn't be the person that she wanted to be. There was nothing you could have done. You couldn't have saved her."

John looks away.

"I know... She was already dead when you killed her..."

Cameron turns his face back toward hers and wipes away the tears on his cheeks.

"You need to talk to me. Sometimes I don't understand, but you can help me understand. It's better for both of us when you tell me what's bothering you. I want to help."

"I will. From now on, I will."

Scene 282: Moonlighting

Thursday May 8th, 2008

11:10pm John and Cameron's motel room

John lays sleeping as Cameron rests her head on his chest.

"I want to stay, but I have to go." she whispers.

Careful not to wake John, she gets out of bed and moves to one of their duffel bags.

She ties her hair back before putting on a pair of John's pants, his shoes, her body armor, and a hooded sweatshirt.

She puts one of her belts on to keep loose fitting pants up, then slides her Glock 22 into her waistband and all six magazines into various pockets.

Cameron places John's M4 close to him, then places a kiss on his forehead.

"I'll be back before you wake up."

She stealthily slips out the door and makes her way to their green sedan while dialing a number on her cellphone.

As she starts driving, someone answers, and she uses the voice of a teenage male- John's voice.

"I don't think she's following me, but I can't be sure!"

"I don't know how to get there!"

"Okay, I'll be right there."

"Yes, it was horrible! She brought me breakfast in bed and we talked all the time! _Century_ couldn't be as bad!"

"All right, bye."

An hour later, she parks the car next to an apartment building and steps out with her hood on.

Fidgeting and glancing around, she pretends to be nervous as she heads into the building.

Getting into an elevator, she presses the button for the third floor and hopes that no one is watching for her.

She draws her Glock, she keeps it behind her thigh to hide it from view.

When the elevator stops, she exits and quickly scans the room numbers.

Finding the one that she wants, she switches to infrared and knocks on the door.

"Who's there?!" an intimidating male voice calls.

Cameron answers in John's voice.

"It's John... I'm really scared, can you just open the door?"

"Step back from the door and let me see your face!"

The man intends to look through the peephole, and Cameron knows it.

She watches him through it from outside the room, and just as he leans forward to peer through, she knocks the door off of the hinges and into his face.

His skull cracks from the impact, but as he hits the floor, she puts a bullet through his cranium anyway.

"METAL!" two of the remaining three Resistance fighters shout.

To her right stand two Resistance fighters. Her HUD identifies the weapons, but she has already recognized them.

The first has a 7.62x51mm M14 rifle, and the second carries an AK47.

On her left stands a lone fighter with a 12 gauge Mossberg 500.

She twists right and lets four rounds rip.

The fighter holding the M14 takes three in the sternum and one in the head.

Cameron doesn't wait for his body to hit the floor before her aim moves to the fighter armed with the AK47.

Buckshot strikes her vest from behind, and 7.62x39mm rounds hit it from the front.

Using infrared, she know that the AK armed fighter wears a vest, and her Glock breathes fire six times.

Two of the rounds find their way into the fighter's brain, taking it with them as they exit.

Spinning around, she finds that the shotgun armed surviver has taken 'cover' behind a counter.

She doesn't know what it contains, but the 40S&W rounds in her Glock have a higher sectional density than most popular handgun rounds- they offer above average penetration.

Firing six times, she draws a three foot long line across the counter.

Her Glock runs dry, and the fighter comes up as she ejects the empty magazine.

To protect her face and head, she simply turns around and hangs her head, leaving only her back and limbs exposed.

The fighter fires five loads of buckshot into the center of her back while she reloads.

Wearing her Level IV vest, the rounds would cause no permanent damage even if she were human.

When the fighter ducks behind the counter again, she turns toward him and begins walking forward while slowly firing into the counter.

As she reaches his hiding place, she moves around beside it and sees that she has wounded the man.

She puts a round through his head.

"I'm sorry, John."

With all four men dead, she finds a large travel bag and picks up the M14, AK47, and ammuntion.

When she discovers that one has a Glock 17, she takes it and the two spare magazines, then discards her LAPD Glock 22- but keeps the magazines and ammunition -in favor of the 9mm model.

She carries the bag over to a 'Hang in There Baby' poster and rips it off of the wall, revealing a safe.

Remembering her previous encounter with a Resistance safe, she puts her fist through the wall just above it.

Sure enough, she finds a power cable attached to the safe and tears it off.

Even with her upgraded shock dampers, her tissue could be damaged by the electricity were it to take her too long to open the safe.

Placing one hand against the body of the safe, she grips the handle with the other. She pulls causing the metal to groan, then scream before it gives up and allows the door to swing open.

Cameron quickly empties the safe into her bag and leaves the apartment.

Scene 283: Thinking Man's Game

Friday May 9th, 2008

4:02am John and Cameron's motel room

The room is almost completely dark.

Cameron has entered silently while carrying her new bag.

John is already awake, but has not heard her enter.

Sitting alone in a chair with his back to her, he holds his Glock in his hand while he stares at it.

Cameron sees him looking at the weapon.

"John, put the gun down."

He starts at her voice, then looks over his shoulder toward her.

"Huh?"

"John, I only left for a little while. I'm back now. It's all right."

She flicks on the light for him, knowing that he needs it to see her.

Blinded by the sudden brightness, John turns away from her and stays seated in the chair.

"Cameron, this isn't what it looks like."

She begins walking toward him.

"Then what were you doing when I came in?"

John takes a moment to think, and feels a hand gently placed on his neck.

"You need to scan me?"

"I need to know that you're all right."

John looks down.

"It's good to know that you trust me so much... I already said that I'd talk to you."

"Please John, this is important."

"Fine, scan me if it makes you feel better. I've been trying to figure out why I _don't_ want to do it, okay?"

Sensing no deception, Cameron moves her hand from his neck to his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, John."

"No, it's okay. I know how messed up I am."

He continues staring at the firearm.

"I used to think a lot about... _this_." he waves the Glock slightly, "Back before I met you, I mean... and I guess a lot since then, too. It just doesn't seem right that I used to think about it all the time, but after what happened with _them_, I haven't. Shouldn't that have made it worse, not better?"

Cameron's hand gently massages his shoulder.

"You have hope, now."

John places his hand on hers.

"Now that I have you."

Cameron speaks softly.

"John, it's okay. You can talk to me."

He starts to think about his time before meeting Cameron.

"There didn't used to be too much for me to look forward to. A day without hearing her rant about the machines or telling me that I was going to die was the best that I could hope for. Whenever I tried to make friends at school, she'd slap me and start screaming that machines would kill them and that it would be all my fault. She didn't care about them, she was just using guilt to get me to do what she wanted. It worked, though. I stopped trying to make friends."

Cameron places her other hand on his other shoulder.

"You know, I never even wondered _why_ I broke her out of Pescadero until tonight. If _I_ were the one sending back uncle Bob, I'd forbid him from getting her out of there. It's where she belonged. I don't know why it took me so long to see that."

She simply massages his shoulders.

After a short time, he relaxes and leans his head back enough to look up at her.

"Thanks for listening, Cam. I've never had anyone to talk to before. No one who cared, atleast."

"You'd listen to me, John."

Closing his eyes, he leans his head against her hand.

"I'm sorry for scaring you."

"I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."

He looks down and shakes his head.

"You didn't. Normal people don't sit in the dark holding a gun and wondering why they don't want to kill themselves."

John sets his weapon on the chair as he stands and turns around, seeing Cameron standing there with bullet holes in her sweatshirt.

"What happened to you?!"

Knocking over the chair to get to her faster, he lifts her shirt, finding a ballistic vest beneath.

"Are you okay?!"

John starts to move around her, checking for any wounds, and finding only a few cuts where bullets have grazed her.

"...I'm undamaged."

She turns toward him and sees his concern.

"Cameron, who did this to you?"

"Your men... I killed four Resistance fighters tonight."

Looking at her in confusion, he doesn't say a word.

"Derek had told them that if anything were to happen to him, it would be my fault."

He fills with rage.

"That son of a bitch! He's _dead_ and he's _still_ fucking with you!"

"It's okay, now. They won't be after me anymore."

John tries to calm himself so that he can think clearly.

"Are there more of them?"

"Yes, but they won't be able to find us. The team I hit tonight was the second recon team. Derek's team had been the first- though he was only supposed to wait for you. All they have left are tac teams."

"How many?"

"John, I took everything from Derek's supply drop. They'll be too busy trying to find supplies to come after me."

"_How many teams_?"

Cameron looks away.

"Four."

"How bad is it?"

"They're a handpicked special forces unit."

"Let me guess, _I_ picked them."

"Yes."  
John thinks for a moment.

"How did you find them?"

"Derek had given them Sarah's cellphone number. They were to contact her immediately if anything were to happen to him. She gave me her cell so that she could contact us after taking care of Derek's ID and phone, and I still had it when they made the call. I used her voice, and I gave them _my_ phone number, telling them that it was yours. They've been trying to 'rescue' you ever since. I stalled them for as long as I could, but they would have found me."

"So that's it? There's no way we can find the others?"

"John, they can't find us."

"Running and hiding isn't good enough! We need to stop them! Maybe they'll listen to me."

"No! That would make it worse!"

"Why?"

"They would send word to other teams that _you_ have been compromised. You could be targeted by your own people."

"Do you know how they would contact the other teams?"

"No."

"Damn it."

Cameron puts her hands on his cheeks.

"John, we'll be okay."

"What about names or locations that are important to them?"

She frowns and takes her hands off of him.

"In L.A., you and Century work camp are the most important."

Quietly thinking to himself, a smile slowly forms.

Cameron tilts her head.

"John?"

His smile fades

"No... they know what we look like."

"They've seen you in the future. It's also safe to assume that they would remember me, but I'm very good at blending in."

John notices for the first time that she's wearing his clothes.

"Yeah, no kidding. Can you disguise yourself well enough that they won't know who you are?"

She smiles.

"Yes."

John's smile returns.

"I need a pair of cellphones."

Scene 284: Out of His League

Monday May 12th, 2008

12:13pm Century City Mall - Food court

Cameron sits alone, having left John at their motel room.

Her hair is once again tied back, she wears large sunglasses, and a formal suit with her new Glock 17 concealed beneath it. She is annoyed at having to wear a suit with pants rather than a skirt, but her leg has not yet fully healed.

Next to her chair is a black briefcase containing an MP5 from Sarah's weapon bag, and a brick of C-4.

An incongruent- considering her disguise -order of nachos remains untouched in front of her. It's what John had bought her before first telling her that he would feel the same way about her without her biological covering.

For the past few days, John has made anonymous phonecalls reporting sightings of himself at the food court.

As expected, the police did not take them seriously. However, any TechCom soldiers searching for him would be unable to resist investigating such consistency in a location of personal significance.

She looks down at the nachos, replaying the memory of her time here with John.

After a moment, she looks up and switches to infrared watching for weapons, body armor, and surveillance devices concealed beneath clothing.

Since her facial recognition system relies so heavily on bone structure, she can identify someone in infrared just as easily as she can with visible light.

She finds her man.

Given his size, the Resistance fighter could pass for a T-800. Being unaccustomed to recon missions, he wears a black trenchcoat concealing a bullet resistant vest and an SG 552 carbine- he is carrying a poorly hidden 5.56x45mm assault rifle in a public place.

Cameron ignores her HUD's 'TERMINATE' suggestion, and merely watches the man.

She watches as his eyes dart from one person to the next as he walks through the crowd of people. The fighter shows just as much apprehension when passing small children as he does when passing possible T-888's.

'He's not nervous about finding John or being ambushed by machines... he's nervous about being near other people.'

When someone accidentally bumps into him, his hand moves toward his weapon. He stops himself just in time.

'John, you're not broken. You're not fighting because it's all you know. You're doing it so that you won't always have to. You're fighting for a chance at a normal life, not to avoid one.'

After a short time, the man loses his nerve. He can't handle being around so many people, and quickly begins heading for the exit.

Cameron follows while resisting the urge to simply put a bullet in his head.

When they reach the parking lot, he heads toward a white van.

Cameron identifies the nearest car without an alarm, and moves toward it.

When the man gets into the driver's seat of the van, Cameron breaks into the selected car.

Ripping off the ignition, she starts the vehicle without any need for the key.

As the van leaves, she follows, unsure if there are others riding in the back.

Forty-five minutes later, the van stops outside of a small apartment building and the man heads inside without even looking back.

'Why did they send _you_? You led me straight back to your safehouse. You didn't make a single detour, and you only checked your mirrors twenty-one times. John would call you a 'douche'.'

She watches the windows of the building, and notices a man looking through a set of blinds at the van.

'That's the room.'

When the man moves away from the window, she parks her car behind the van and steps out.

Walking over to the vehicle, she is unsurprised to find it unlocked.

'Douche.'

Cameron pops the plastic panel off the inside of the door and deposits a cellphone behind it before popping the panel back in place.

Glancing into the back of the van, she finds that much of their tactical gear is stored within. They can't afford being seen exiting the building with armor, assault rifles, and light machinguns every time they are dispatched.

'I wish I could take some of that, but I can't risk letting them know that they've been discovered...'

She gets back into her stolen car and leaves.

Scene 285: Brains Over Brawn

Monday May 12th, 2008

3:23pm Small apartment building - Outside

John steps out of a taxi while carrying a backpack and talking to Cameron on his cellphone.

"What did he look like?"

"Just big? I need more than that..."

"Well, like, what was he wearing, how tall was he, what about skin, hair, and eye color?"

"Okay, thanks."

"I love you. Bye."

'I'm sorry that I tricked you, Cam.'

John heads into the building and begins knocking on doors.

Coming to a room with a small cat silhouette hanging on it, he smiles to himself.

'This must be it.'

Moments after he knocks, an old woman answers the door.

'Damn.'

"Excuse me ma'am, I'm looking for a friend. He's a really big white guy with a few room mates. Have you seen him?"

The old woman seems to be happy to have a visitor of any kind.

"Why yes I have, young man. He lives right down there at the end of hall. Last door on your left."

John glances down at the hallway, then smiles at the woman.

"Thank you very much, ma'am. You have a nice day."

"You too, son. Bye now."

He starts walking toward the end of the hall.

'Why can't more people be like her? Is it so hard to be polite for two seconds?'

John reaches the door and knocks, careful not to move his wrist the wrong way.

'Cam, I hope that you understand.'

He hears several people quickly moving around inside the room and starts to get nervous.

'These are _my_ people, I don't need to worry.'

Footsteps approach the door, and John looks directly at the peephole.

A muffled voice comes from inside the room.

"Jesus Christ! It's _him_!"

The door flies open and he's yanked inside by his shirt.

Four Resistance fighters form a semi-circle in front of him.

They all seem to recognize him, but he has to be sure.

"I'm John Connor, future leader of the Resistance."

"We _know_ who you are. How'd you find us? Did it follow you?" a large white man in a trenchcoat asks.

'This must be the guy.'

"You drive a white van."

The other three men glare at their friend.

'It _is_ him.'

"Yeah, so what?"

"I followed you here from Century City Mall. I made you at the food court. You were carrying a Sturmgewehr 552 and wearing body armor."

"Hey! Someone made _you_, too! I was there to pick you up before the cops or that machine did!"

"I've been calling the police on myself for the past three days, trying to draw you out."

"Trying to draw _us_ out?! If you get arrested, the machines will find you! They'll kill you! This isn't some little kid's game!"

"Thanks for the advice. You know, my mother never told me that. She certainly didn't tell me that EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY!"

Although they see this John as only a kid, three of the fighters move away from the fourth who has angered their future leader.

John doesn't need to act. He's genuinely furious and truly considers himself to be their superior- though in intellect, rather than rank.

"I'm here to get you people the hell off my back."

"We're trying to protect you from that machine! The one that killed Derek!"

"My _mother_ killed Derek!"

Believing that they've misunderstood him, the fighters all look at each other, gauging the reactions of the others.

John takes advantage of the silence. With everything that he's been through, he doesn't need to fake his rage and disgust.

"My mother told me to stay away from _him_, but I didn't listen. For six months that son of a bitch was having flashbacks! When he had his last one, he _shot_ me and then tried to blame it on my machine!"

John lifts his shirt to reveal the injuries.

"I _lost a kidney _and spent two weeks _in a coma_! When I woke up, I told my mother what happened! Derek tried to thermite the machine, and he stabbed me for trying to stop him! My mother saw that and she _snapped his fucking neck_!"

Through John's anger, he sheds a few tears for his mother

"Now she's dead too! _You_ people got my mother killed! Some of you led a triple-eight to _my_ house! _My mother_ is _dead_ because of you!"

He lowers his voice, but it remains filled with anger and resentment.

"I tracked down the fuckers responsible. I was going to kill them _myself_, but the machine that killed my mom beat me there. They were dead when I got there. My machine and I cleaned out the safe."

John thows his backpack at the big guy.

"That's everything that was inside. Now you get back to whatever the fuck I sent you for! But you stay the fuck away from me! Do you understand?!"

They say nothing.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

Even with their respect for Derek, the do not question John's story. They are all aware of soldiers going berserk, and the story they've just been fed is an all too familiar one.

"Yeah... I understand..." the big guy answers.

John finds himself capable of staring down all four of them at once.

After several seconds of glaring at them, he turns around and heads for the door.

On the way, he completes the effect by muttering curse words at them while shaking his head in disgust and disappointment.

John doesn't look back at them as he exits the room.

Scene 286: Low Expectations

Monday May 12th, 2008

5:46pm John and Cameron's motel room

Cameron waits patiently for John while replaying the memory of his last phonecall to her.

"Cameron, where are you?"

"Okay, when you get there just stay put. All right?"

"No I'm not, but I will be soon."

"I'll tell you when I get back. Please just promise me that you won't leave until I get there, okay?"

"Thank you, Cameron. I'll see you soon."

Her eyes lock onto the door knob as it begins to turn.

When the door swings open, John walks in and sets a pizza box on a bureau.

Making his way to Cameron, he kneels in front of her and takes her hands in his.

"Cameron, I'm sorry for lying to you. I knew that you wouldn't let me go alone."

She frowns.

"Where did you go?"

John looks down.

"I went to see those Resistance fighters..."

"John! I told you that you couldn't reason with them! You've only made things worse!"

John looks up at her.

"No, it's okay now. They won't be bothering us anymore."

"Now they'll be coming for _you_ too! You can't tell anyone about _us_! Not ever!"

He looks down again.

"I know that. I want to... but I can't." he looks back up at her, "I didn't tell them about us."

"Then what _did_ you tell them?"

Unsure of what she'll think of him, it takes a moment to get up the nerve to answer her.

"I told them that Derek shot me and that they got my mom killed by leading a triple-eight to us."

"They would never believe that Derek would do such a thing."

"I said that it was during a flashback."

"What about his death?"

"I said that he blamed you for the shooting, and tried to burn you. I told them that when I tried to stop him, he stabbed me and that my mom killed him for it."

"And the fighters I killed?"

"I said that we were going to kill them for leading a machine to my mother, but that it beat us to them. That's when we cleaned out the safe. I gave them everything that you took from it, then I told them to get back to their mission and to stay away from us."

Cameron shakes her head.

"They don't take orders from you."

"Cameron, they think that they were responsible for the death of _Sarah Connor_. They won't bother us anymore. I would know... I have a lot of experience with guilt..."

"What about the supply drop? I took everything."

"I didn't mention it."

"Then we have to move before they realize what I've done."

"No we don't. I told them about everything else. Leaving it out only makes it seem like there are things that even I don't know about. They'll find their supplies missing, and they'll blame it on the triple-eight that I made up. They'll think exactly what I wanted them to. They have no reason to doubt me, and I can promise you that they don't."

Cameron regards him for a moment.

"Did you plan this from the beginning?"

He looks down again.

"I'm sorry."

"John, what if they hadn't let you go?"

John removes his Glock and sets it aside before looking at her.

"Then I would have put as many holes in them as I could before they brought me down. Cam... as long as I'm alive, nothing can keep me away from you."

Cameron smiles faintly.

"John, in the future..." she trails off, knowing that he doesn't want to hear about his future self.

He looks away.

"You can say it. I've already accepted that no matter what I do or how hard I try, I'll never be as good as _he_ is." he looks back at her, "But I'm trying, Cameron. I'm trying for _you_."

She takes her hands from his and puts them on his cheeks before he can turn away again.

"John, you're wrong. Everything you've heard about him has been from _sixteen years_ into the war. You were never allowed to fight until _eight_ _months_ ago. You may be young, but you're every bit the man that he is."

John looks down again.

"Don't lie just to make me feel better."

She frowns.

"Did you know that they would let you go?"

He continues looking down.

"No..."

"You didn't know what would happen, but you went in anyway?"

John looks up at her.

"But I didn't have a choice!"

"You didn't know if they would believe anything you told them?"

"I know it was stupid, but-"

"And then you brought back pizza?"

He looks down.

"I'm sorry..."

She tilts her head.

"For what?"

John is incredulous.

"Aren't you mad at me? Disappointed in me? Aren't you going to say that I was stupid and careless?"

"Why would I say that? You aren't stupid and you weren't careless."

He searches her eyes for a moment.

"But I lied to you! I used you!"

"John, unless you do these things we won't beat Skynet. You should be proud of yourself."

"Cameron, I sent you out there without even telling you what I was planning! I risked your life without telling you why! I could have gotten you killed!"

She smiles.

"I'm your queen, remember? I can take care of myself, and you won't win this game without using me."

He says nothing, but slowly returns her smile.

Cameron glances over at the box he carried in.

"What kind of pizza did you get?"

Scene 287: Back to Normal

Sunday May 18th, 2008

8:36am John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

John lays sleeping.

Cameron just entered the room with a pair of tight running shorts, tank top, sneakers, and socks long enough to cover her the endoskeleton of her left leg.

One end of the bed is suddenly lifted and shaken.

John starts awake.

"Earthquake!"

He rolls off the bed and attempts to warn Cameron, not realizing that she's already in the room.

"Cameron! Get out of the-"

Her laughter interrupts him.

"It's not an earthquake, John."

"That wasn't funny! I thought we were going to be buried alive!"

Her laughter stops, but her smile doesn't fade.

"I was just waking you up."

John notices her attire.

"What are you doing?"

She begins pretending to stretch her muscles.

"What does it _look_ like?"

"It looks like you're stretching muscles that we _both_ know you don't have."

Cameron frowns.

"You've gained weight."

John pats his side where he'd been shot.

"Lead weighs a lot."

"It's not lead- it's pizza and ice cream."

John sighs.

'There are more fun ways for us to burn calories...'

"All right, Cam." he grumbles.

After a short time, they both stand outside of the apartment building.

"Ready, John?"

"Yeah. Let's get this over with..."

Cameron looks at him for a moment, then turns and begins to jog slowly.

Several seconds pass before John realizes that he should be following her instead of staring at her tight shorts, but he catches up easily.

"So... we're walking then?"

Cameron smiles over at him and increases her pace slightly.

"Cam, I can do this all day."

She smiles again and speeds up.

"Where are we going?" he asks.

"Why does that matter?"

He smirks.

"Because at this rate I'll die of old age before we get there."

She frowns.

"Fine."

Her pace increases significantly, and John begins having trouble sparing the breath to talk.

"This is... more like it."

She watches him for a moment.

"How long can you keep this up?"

"Long enough to get... bored."

"You're not bored. You're out of breath."

"That's because I'm not... being chased by a... terminator."

"Would you like me to find a triple-eight for you to train with?"

"How fast can they... run?"

"Faster than you can sprint."

"Are they as fast... as you are?"

She looks at him for a moment.

"You saw the amateur videos of me carrying you through the street. Have you ever seen one of them run that fast?"

"That's not an answer... but I'll take it as a 'no'."

"It _is_ a 'no'."

John grins.

"You were the fastest... machine on the road... that day."

She pouts.

"Only the fastest?"

"You also have better... handling."

Cameron regards him for a moment.

"What does that even mean?"

"I don't know. It just came to me... while I was looking at... those shorts of yours."

She shakes her head at him.

"John, your legs are already diverting blood flow from your brain. Don't exacerbate the deficiency."

"What are you talking... about?"

She grins.

"I don't know. It just came to me while I was looking at those shorts of _yours_."

John laughs, forcing him to slow his pace for a moment.

"You know, you really kicked... the shit out of that... drunk's car that day."

"You would have been crushed between my chassis and that vehicle if I hadn't."

John's eyes wander to her hips.

"Why do I always think... that it's so sexy when... you talk about your... 'chassis'?"

"Because you dropped out of school, so you don't know what the word means."

"Was that a joke... or was it an insult?"

"Was it funny or was it insulting?"

"A little of both I... guess. Damn... can you atleast pretend... to be having trouble... keeping this pace?"

"Okay John... I'll pretend to be as out... of breath as _you_ are"

"I wasn't being... serious... I hate it when... you pretend."

"What's wrong with me pretending? You do it all the time."

"The difference is... that I can't tell when... you do it."

"I don't pretend when something is important."

"Cameron... what if we... disagree on... what's important?"

As John begins to tire, Cameron slows without letting on that she's noticed.

"John, I'm not human. There are a lot of human things that I don't care about."

"What sorts of things... do you mean?"

"Whether or not I wear clothes for one."

John grins.

"Well you look great... either way."

"I don't have any control over that."

"You wouldn't have control... over it if you were human... so just be flattered... and move on."

He thinks about how fast Cameron was actually running when carrying him.

"Cameron... thanks for saving my life... _again_."

"You would have done it for me."

"Yeah, but _I_ can't do what... you did."

"Well, _I_ can't fix your damaged programming."

His laughter causes him to stop running, and nearly fall down.

Cameron steadies him.

"John, what's so funny?"

"My programming _is_ damaged, Cam, and you _are_ fixing it."

"John, don't say that."

"Don't say what? I didn't say anything wrong."

"I don't want to hear you talk like that."

"Cam, I'm never going to be normal. No matter what happens with Skynet, I'll always be looking for escape routes, weapons, choke points, hiding places, distractions, and... a more permanent way out."

"I run various subroutines. Some are combat and evasion related."

John's smile surprises Cameron.

"What's the best escape plan for me, right now?"

She nods toward a red SUV parallel parked next to a coffee shop across the street.

"That vehicle has been left running."

John frowns.

"Are you making fun of me?"

"No. I can see the heat. It's running."

"Yeah, I know- I can see the exhaust. I can't run across the street and get that thing out of that space and into traffic before the owner comes out, let alone before that cop over there arrests me."

She seems annoyed.

"Then what would _you_ do?"

John gestures toward a bicycle chained to a light post right behind Cameron.

"That bike lock _isn't_ locked."

"A bicycle?"

"Why not? It's four feet away and I can do thirty-plus on it."

Cameron looks down.

"You're right..."

"What's wrong?"

"I thought that I was better than that. My HUD ignored it, and I didn't notice it on my own."

John lifts her chin.

"Hey, there's _nothing_ wrong with you. For a long time, your HUD made all of your decisions. You can't expect to just... break free from it over night."

"I'm afraid that I never will."

"Well... what do you use it for?"

"That's what scares me. Whether I use it or not, it always tells me things. What if it's controlling me and I don't even know it?"

"What is it saying right now?"

"It's telling me your age, ethnicity, height, weight, hair and eye color, and that you appear to be fatigued and-"

He cuts her off.

"You already know all of that, so it's not affecting your decisions."

She smiles as she looks him up and down.

"Yes it is."

"Didn't you already know everything it just told you?"

"Yes, but my HUD helped me put them together."

Cameron starts to run back toward their apartment, keeping a slow pace to allow John's muscles to warm up again.

"What did it help you figure out?"

She looks at him innocently.

"That you need a shower..." she looks straight ahead before continuing, "..._and_ that you want company."

Scene 288: Waste of Time

Monday May 19th, 2008

12:07am A California gunshop

John and Cameron each carry a duffel bag and wear dark clothing, leather gloves, and ski masks.

Cameron steals ammuntion- the heaviest thing that they need -while John focuses on weapons and accessories.

John sighs while looking at a display case filled with handguns.

"Ten round magazines... I _hate_ California..." he looks over his shoulder at Cameron, "Want anything?"

"No. We're going to a _real_ gunshop next. It's pointless to load up the car now."

John shrugs and turns back to the case, admiring the contents.

'She's right, but I'm cleaning out the next place...'

"Hey, Cam? Can you grab some 10mm ammo?"

She quickly acquires the appropriate ammunition.

"They only have two hundred rounds of ten millimeter."

"Self defense or practice?"

"Self defense."

"Nice."

Cameron considers that every pistol cartridge in the store could be fired one after another into her frontal armor without compromising its integrity.

"John? Are you expecting more grays?"

He turns toward her.

"Skynet was sending a lot of them back. I'm sure that we didn't prevent new arrivals."

"I know, but is that why you want a more powerful handgun? It won't work against a machine."

John grins.

"Yeah, but it's fun to shoot. Not everything is about fighting."

Moving on to the rifles, he finds an interesting shotgun.

"Cam, I'm getting you a Benelli M3."

"Sounds good."

She knocks boxes of twelve gauge buckshot and slugs from the shelf into her bag.

John sees a large rifle on the rack.

"Hey, Cam? I thought that 50BMG rifles were illegal in California..."

"For civilian purchase they are. You're mistaken as to what it is you're looking at."

"No I'm not. It's a Barrett M95- a bolt action fifty caliber rifle. Enrique let me fire his."

Turning, she scans the weapon, then scans a display case filled with optical sights.

"No, it's a Barrett M99- a single shot rifle chambered in .416 Barrett. You time travelled past its introduction. Take it and that scope... far left in the display, there's one with sixty times magnification. You should also take one for the M14 back at the apartment, and a mount..." she scans a rack behind the counter next to John, "...on the wall, upper right, three columns in."

John smiles at her.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

She smiles back.

"Of course. I'm a terminator."

While she bags what little .416 ammunition is available, he quickly grabs the scope mount before smashing the display case of optical sights and taking the two most expensive scopes, along with several reflex sights- including one for his M4A1.

"Cam, is there anything else that we need from here?"

She lobs cans of smokeless powder in with the ammunition.

"Slings and magazine pouches."

Nodding, he tosses some into his bag and the two of them quickly head out to their car.

Minutes later, they drive down the freeway, heading toward their next target.

Keeping his M4 low to avoid being seen, John removes the carry handle from it and starts to attach a reflex sight in its place.

"Hey Cam, when do you think we can go to the range?"

"Whenever you want. We can go when you wake up."

He finishes tightening the screws and smiles over at her.

"Then it's a date."

She smiles back, then looks at his rifle.

"Let me see that."

Cameron looks the weapon over, then peers through the reflex sight.

"Twelve clicks up, seven clicks left."

John shakes his head while adjusting the sight by following her instructions.

'Way to take the fun out of sighting in a rifle...' he thinks.

"What's my zero?"

"One hundred meters."

"Thanks, Cameron... but what's the point of going to the range now?"

"The same as it was before- you need practice."

"There's a triple-eight who disagrees with you... oh wait... he's not disagreeing with anyone anymore."

"John, it'll make me feel better."

"It'll make me feel better too, I guess. It's a good stress reliever."

Cameron looks over at him.

"You mean shooting things? Destroying your target?"

"No, it's not that. It's the routine of it. It's like... meditation or something. You have to stay so focused on safety precautions, steadying your weapon, controlling your breathing, and a steady trigger pull that you just stop thinking about other things. There's no way to guarantee that you'll hit your target unless you focus _all_ of your attention on it. Everything else just falls away."

Scene 289: You're Different

Monday May 19th, 2008

2:51am A Nevada gunshop

John and Cameron each carry a second, empty duffel bag and once more wear dark clothing, leather gloves, and ski masks.

Cameron again takes ammuntion, while John steals weapons and accessories.

This time, they are in a place with no laws limiting civilian magazines to ten rounds.

The selected gunshop is also a registered Class III weapons dealer- they sell _legal_ fully automatic weapons.

John grins at a display case of pistols.

'Glocks with third generation frames... our gen 1's don't have accessory rails...'

He looks over his shoulder at Cameron.

"There are two 3rd gen Glock 17's. Want one of 'em?"

She smiles over at him.

"Sure."

Smashing the glass, he tosses both into his bag before taking several tactical lights.

"Any other handguns you're interested in?"

"No."

John shrugs and turns back to the case, admiring the contents.

"Fuck it."

He takes three additional 9mm Glocks- two compact Glock 19's and a subcompact Glock 26 -along with two 10mm Glocks- a fullsize Glock 20 and a subcompact 29.

"Cameron, don't forget to snag the 10mm ammo."

"Okay, but there isn't much."

He looks back at the display case.

"What about .357 SIG ammo?"

"John, no. You don't need every gun in the store."

"Good idea- I'll just take the slide, then I can turn my Glock 17 into a Glock 31 whenever I want to."

"No, I mean that we already need five types of ammunition for our rifles and two for our sidearms."

He sighs and looks longingly at the rest of the weapons.

"You're right- wait... _two_ types? What about your two 40 caliber pistols? Your Glock and your P229?"

"I'm going to throw them away."

"Why? There's nothing wrong with them, and they're great guns."

"I told you, I prefer the higher capacity of 9mm's."

Cameron notices a rack of holsters and throws several of them into her bag.

"John, it's dangerous and careless to stuff a firearm down your pants. Now you won't have any excuse to do so."

"What about when I need to lose a weapon fast?"

"These just clip onto the inside of your waistband. They're easy to remove."

"All right. Oh, grab one for a G26 and G19, too."

She turns toward him.

"John... how many guns did you take?"

He looks over at her.

"Five... seven including the 17's."

Cameron shakes her head.

"That's just extra weight that we'll have to transport when we move."

"But they're lighter and easier to conceal while in public."

"John, I already know _everything_ about _every_ small arm made from the beginning of the 19th century until the year 2026. If you want them that badly, then take them. The worst that happens is we have to leave them behind."

John smiles at her then moves over to the rifle rack.

'Barrett M82. Just like the T-880's but brand new.'

"Cameron, they have an _actual_ 50 caliber rifle."

She smiles and speaks innocently

"Are you sure that you can carry it out of here by yourself?"

John laughs.

"I guess that means you want it? Okay, it's yours."

Two feet of the weapon's barrel soon protrude from the bag- now thirty pounds heavier.

Cameron liberates a couple hundred rounds of 50BMG ammunition.

John takes more rifle slings, a few thigh holsters, magazine pouches and then dumps every Glock, M4, M14, and AK47 magazine that he can find into his bag.

"You know, it would be nice to be a few years older and to _not_ be a fugitive... there's no reason for us to steal any of this stuff..."

"John, we're going to be shooting men and machines- you don't want to do that with a weapon registered in your name."

"I know, I just feel guilty about stealing when we have like six hundred-fifty thousand dollars back at the apartment."

Together, Cameron and John move toward the automatic weapons.

She picks up a large rifle.

"This M14 is in excellent condition. Much better than ours."

John takes it and carries it back to his bag.

"Not anymore- it _is_ ours now."

Cameron is in awe of something.

"John... I think I'm going to destroy your M4 now..."

"Why? What's back there?"

He arrives at her side.

"Take this..." she pushes a Heckler and Koch G36 into his chest, "...and these..." she follows it up with a G36C and a G3A3, "...and this..." she adds a Steyr AUG to the pile of weapons in his arms.

John looks at her as she reaches for more weapons.

"Uh... Cam? Can I set these down first?"

She stares at him as if unable to understand his words.

"...Oh... right. Go ahead."

He regards her for a moment, then adds the weapons to his bag.

"Cameron... you aren't destroying my M4."

She doesn't turn away from the wall of guns.

"We'll see."

"No we _won't_ see. You _aren't_ going to do it."

"John, just shut up and take this."

She shoves a rifle at him. It has an M16 lower receiver and an M4 upper receiver- functionally it's an M4.

"Huh?"

"It's better maintained than yours."

"Yeah, but how many triple-eights has it killed?"

"Then use it for parts."

John smiles at her as she starts removing pieces from various weapons and pocketing them.

"Thanks, Cam."

She stops to smile back at him.

"You're welcome, but after you fire a G36 you are going to _ask_ me to destroy your M4."

Chuckling and shaking his head, he adds the rifle to his bag before taking as many accessories and magazines for the weapons as he can find.

A short time later, Cameron drives their heavily weighted green sedan, with blankets and cardboard boxes covering the weapons in the backseat. To passersby, they would appear to be moving personal belongings.

She looks over at John in the passenger seat as he stares at his bare right palm.

John opens and closes the hand a few times. The skin where he had been burned by Derek's flare has not yet fully healed, and is still thin and sensitive.

"We'll be fighting again in just a few weeks. Where do you think we should start?"

"I don't know. That's supposed to be your department."

"How many machines are after us right now?"

"Atleast the two that I defeated."

"Will they work together?"

"No, and it's likely that they have split up in order to cover more ground."

"Will they be in communication? If one finds us, will any others find us too?"

"Not unless they are under orders to inform them."

"Does that happen often?"

She glances over at him.

"In the future, they report the locations of newly discovered Resistance assets in case their attack fails."

"Cam... let's say that we get hit by _more_ than two triple-eights at once. Can we handle it with these weapons?"

He receives a reassuring smile.

"Of course we can."

John frowns.

"This isn't a therapy session."

Cameron looks back at the road, realizing that he wants her to run a scenario analysis.

"Where?"

John pats his M4A1 and M203A1 next to his door.

"Right here, right now."

"You can disable any vehicle on the road. We would have a ninety-seven percent chance of successful evasion."

John shakes his head.

"That's assuming that we ID them before they attack us, isn't it?"

Cameron hesitates.

"Yes."

"Cameron, you can't just tell me what I want to hear. I need the truth, and I need to be able to trust you."

"We don't have to fight right now, so why are you worrying about it?"

John points at a random vehicle.

"_That_ could be one of them. They won't wait until we want to fight. What are our chances if they spot us first?"

She doesn't say anything.

"Cameron, you already know the answer. Just tell me."

"How many."

"Three. In separate vehicles."

"Your grenade launcher offers us a twenty-nine percent chance of evasion."

"Without it?"

"Seven percent."

"Do those numbers account for how much you've changed?"

She looks at him for a moment, then smiles.

"Sixty-four and fifteen percent... _eighty-three and twenty-one percent_."

John stares in confusion.

"Why the second change?"

"I'm not the only one who's different, John."

Scene 290: Starvation

Tuesday May 20th, 2008

12:19pm John and Cameron's apartment - Dining room

John uses a fork to poke at a salad.

Cameron doesn't seem to mind hers.

John looks over at Cameron as she seemingly enjoys her meal.

"Do you have your sense of taste turned off?"

She frowns.

"No."

He looks down at the pile of leaves in front of him.

"Well I would if I could. Can you teach me how to?"

"I only want you to be healthy."

John looks at her in desperation.

"What about when my body gets sick of rabbit food and starts eating itself? I think I'm already feeling weak."

She shakes her head.

"Your muscles won't atrophy after one salad."

John prods it again with his fork.

"Can I atleast put some more bacon bits and ranch on it?"

"John, that would defeat the purpose of eating it. Besides, I have to switch vision modes just to see through the dressing you've already poured on it."  
John pokes it some more.

"And it _still_ tastes bland. And bad. Both. At the same time." he looks at her, "Cameron... that shouldn't even be possible..."

She looks at the salad then at him.

"I bought some apples... do want me to cut one up and add it to your salad?"

John shakes his head.

"Thanks for the offer, but that sounds like a waste of an apple."

"Well, what if I added carrots and apples?"

"No thanks. Wait... 'carrots and apples'? Why does that sound familiar to me?" he thinks for a moment, "Hmm. Oh well, it couldn't have been anyone important who said it."

"John, what about another flavor of dressing?"

He reaches over and puts his hand on hers.

"Cam, don't worry about it. Just let me whine and complain until I tire myself out and eat this stuff."

"Well hurry up. Don't you want to try out our new toys?" she gestures toward a bag of guns.

He looks at the guns, then at a fork full of leaves, then at Cameron.

"I don't know if it's worth it."

"Humph."

She gets up and walks over to one of the bags of weapons, returning with a G36.

After a moment of watching her as she pretends to inspect the weapon, he sighs and forces himself to eat more of the greens.

"I can't believe that people eat this stuff. I feel like any second I'm going to go up to the roof and start shooting pigeons."

Cameron tilts her head.

"Why would you do that? They aren't a threat."

"They aren't a threat, but they _are_ made of meat... and it can't be as bad as this... I mean, I'm wasting away over here."

She slams the bolt forward.

"Just eat it so we can go."

"I'm trying to, it's just _really_ hard."

"That's because you won't shut up long enough to take a bite."

"That may be, but it doesn't change anything."

Cameron walks away from the table, but does not return this time.

"All right, Cameron. You win."

Several gruelling minutes later, the foliage has been consumed, and John has joined Cameron at the weapon bags.

She holds her new Benelli M3 and watches John as he tosses his old Glock 17 into the bag in favor of his new one.

"John, I thought that you had grown attached to your Glock..."

A tactical light with a built in laser is quickly attached to his new Glock 17's accessory rail.

"What about your thing for Remington 870's?"

"I destroyed Cromartie with one, but this is a superior weapon."

He activates the laser portion of the light and begins adjusting it to match the iron sights' point of aim.

"_This_ is too."

She takes the weapon from him and adjusts the laser before handing it back.

"You're set for twenty-five meters. So you can form a strong emotional connection with a machine, but only so long as it is the best model available to you?"

John blinks a few times, then looks at her.

"Cameron... what exactly are you asking me?"

She stares at him for a moment, then frowns.

"Not _that_. I'm not worried about being replaced."

John puts his arm around her and kisses the side of her head.

"You'd better not be, because you can't be replaced. To answer your question, no. I'm not forgetting about my other gun, I'm just not going to carry it anymore."

"Just like your M4."

"You know... that didn't sound like a question."

"It wasn't. You're _not_ going to carry it anymore."

"Our new guns don't have grenade launchers. No matter what you think of my M4, it's the most effective weapon we have until I run out of grenades."

Cameron looks over at the .50 caliber Barrett M82 rifle.

"That's only because I don't have any Raufoss Mark two-elevens for my M82."

John remembers Derek telling him about the round before destroying a T-888 with several of them.

"Maybe we can fix that..."

He sets their bag of money on the bed and begins digging through it, searching for something.

"What are you looking for, John?"

"_She_ said that she put a list of contacts in here. What if they aren't just for information? Maybe there's an arms dealer in here."

"It's doubtful that she would have known anyone with access to the type of weaponry we need."

"I don't know about that. Enrique had a grenade launcher and a minigun."

Pulling out a piece of paper, he narrows his eyes at it. When he flips it over, he finds what he was looking for.

He holds that side toward Cameron.

"Cameron, can you please remember everything this says?"

"Yes."

John smiles.

"Thanks."

He quickly rips the paper into as many pieces as he can before walking away.

"Where are you going?"

"Nowhere. Just to the bathroom."

Her cybernetic eyes had allowed her to clearly read the writing on the side which he had tried to conceal. It was a letter from his mother, and he had torn it up without reading it.

A short time later, he returns.

"John... if you ever want to know what she wrote... I can tell you."

"If I had cared what she had to say, then I wouldn't have taken the time to piss on her letter it before flushing the toilet."

She puts her hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay to-"

"I don't want to talk about it. I want to forget that she ever existed."

"But you can't just forget, John."

"That won't stop me from trying."

She takes her hand off of him and a brief silence passes.

"One of the names could be what we need."

"So how do we contact them?"

"_We_ don't."

John shakes his head.

"Don't do this. I'm _not_ letting you run off by yourself."

"John, _I'm_ not letting _you_ run off by yourself."

He looks at her in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

She picks up several HK G36 magazines and begins loading them.

"They're supposed to know _you_. You'll have to meet them, but I'll be right beside you."

John smiles and begins helping load magazines.

"That sounds better than my plan."

She looks over at him.

"What was your plan?"

"When you tried to sneak off, I was going to follow you with either a scoped M14 or that M99. You were going to have cover whether you wanted it or not."

Cameron smiles.

"It's nice of you to think of my safety, but I can take care of myself."

John focuses on loading a magazine.

"I know you can."

She picks up his M4 and frowns at it.

"Besides, it's been a long time since you last fired a _real_ gun."

He chuckles.

"Now that was just _mean_."

***************************************************************************************


	20. Scenes 291 to 300

**Predaking50ae Scenes 291-300**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 291: Practice Makes Perfect

Tuesday May 20th, 2008

3:58pm California desert - Middle of nowhere

John and Cameron carry steel plates away from the car. They each wear fatigues and combat boots.

With his M4 slung, and his Glock 20 in a thigh rig, John struggles with the weight of his steel plate.

Cameron carries an HK G3A3- a 7.62x51mm battle rifle -on a sling, her Glock 17 in a thigh holster, and two steel plates as though they were newspapers.

"Hey Cameron, how far are we going?"

She smiles and hands him a canteen.

"You're not going to die out here, if that's what you're wondering."

John rolls his eyes.

"Thanks... I feel _so_ much better now..."

"We need to set these far enough away for it to be a challenge."

He looks over his shoulder at the car, estimating it to be two hundred yards away.

"You mean for you?"

She frowns.

"No, for you."

He looks back at the car again.

"How far do you think I can shoot? The only weapon here that I have any experience with is my M4. I'm not used to the others."

"Well then _get_ used to them. We'll stay out here for as long as it takes."

"Cam... you don't know anything about target practice, do you?"

She stops.

"I don't understand. Did I do something wrong?"

He turns to face her.

"Not yet, but you were about to. You can't just shoot all day and expect to get better with every shot. It doesn't work like that. It takes time to build the skills, but almost no time to ruin them. One bad day at the range and I might develop a bad habit or lose confidence in my abilities."

"John, you make it sound dangerous."

He smiles and starts trying to jam the base of the steel plate into the sand so that it will stand up on its own.

"It is dangerous. If I were attacked right now, I'd be fairly confident that I could take care of myself. If I don't do so hot today, I'll lose that confidence and the only way to get it back will be to come out here again sometime."

"Then how long should we stay?"

John looks back at the car while wondering why they didn't place the targets next to it, and then _drive_ _away from them_.

"We should stay for as long as we're having fun."

John walks with Cameron as she places one plate at four hundred meters, and her second at six hundred meters.

"You know, Cam... someone could just steal our car while we're out here."

She smiles as she grips her rifle.

"I'd like to see them try."

They start walking back toward their car and John looks at her firearm.

"Why are you such a fan of German weapons?"

"Because they're superior. Your M4 was obsolete before your military adopted it."

"You're just jealous because I have a grenade launcher and you don't."

Cameron looks over at his M203A1.

"That's obsolete too."

John stops in his tracks.

"Name _one_ that's better."

"The AG36."

John sighs.

"Let me guess... it's German?"

"Yes it is. Designed for use with the HK G36."

"Imagine that..."

They start walking again.

"John, I'm not trying to be mean."

"I'm sure."

She motions toward the Glock in his thigh rig.

"You prefer Glocks to other handguns. They're Austrian- just like the Steyr AUG sitting in the car."

"Yeah, but how many American handguns can compete with the capacity of a Glock?"

"There aren't any. There also aren't any American rifles that can compete with the best that Germany, Austria, Israel, France, Russia, Spain-"

"That's enough, Cameron." he puts in a set of earplugs and draws his Glock 20, "I want to try this thing out."

Cameron looks at it, then at the target now fifty feet away.

"Not at this range. We're too close."

John rolls his eyes and aims at the steel plate.

*clink*

He looks at the weapon.

"The recoil is a more than I'd hoped, but less than I'd expected."

"Fire it as fast as you can accurately."

*clink*  
*clink*  
*clink*

Cameron draws her Glock 17 and hands it to him, taking his 20.

"Do the same with this."

*clink**clink**clink*  
*clink**clink**clink*  
*clink**clink**clink*

"See, John? You can fire a nine millimeter three times as quickly as your ten millimeter."

"A nine millimeter isn't as effective in tissue, _and_ I told you that I only wanted the ten for fun. Plus, that ten millimeter can penetrate things that will stop a nine millimeter all day long. Why don't you try it?"

Cameron looks at the weapon, then fires it one handed at the target without even looking- having already seen its location.

*clink**clink**clink*

She hands it back to him with the slide locked back.

John looks at the weapon in disbelief.

"Huh?"

"What's wrong, John?"

"Nothing... I just thought I had it combat loaded with sixteen rounds. I fired four and you fired three."

Cameron frowns.

"I fired twelve."

He shakes his head at her.

"No, I heard three hit the plate."

"That's because you're human. The sounds occurred too close together for your brain to distinguish them." she points at a cluster of twelve shell casings in the sand.

John replaces the magazine and holds the weapon out to her.

"It only holds two fewer rounds than your model 17 and it penetrates _way_ better. I don't need to be a terminator to know that it's the better weapon."

Cameron looks at it for a moment, then takes it with a smile and kisses him on the cheek.

They trade holsters and magazines, then Cameron puts her Glock 17 in his hand.

"John, failure drill. Now!"

Failure drills are practice for dealing with opponents who are wearing body armor or who are on drugs. Two in the chest, one in the head. It's what he knows he should have done against Derek, but being out of practice it had no longer been second nature.

John snaps the weapon up and fires two into the center of the plate, and one into what would be the head if it were a person.

"Again!"

*clink**clink*

*clink*

"Again!"

*clink**clink*

*clink*

"Advance while firing!"

John starts slowly walking toward the plate.

*clink**clink*

*clink*

"Rifle!"

The G17 goes into the holster, and his M4 comes up.

He puts several controlled bursts into the target.

"It's jammed!" she shouts.

John clears the imaginary jam before continuing to fire.

"You can't clear it!"

Pretending that his weapon is disabled, he lets it hang on its sling, then draws his sidearm and continues firing into the steel.

"Good, John."

After John has used the last of the 9mm rounds Cameron had carried, they continue back toward the car.

A short time later, Cameron watches the 600 meter plate through the 60x scope on the Barrett M99 as John fires at it with an M14 loaded with match grade ammunition and topped with a 40x scope- the second 60x optical sight having gone to the Barrett M82.

She calls the impact location of each round.

"You hit low."

*BANG*

"Left and high."

*BANG*

"Right and low."

After emptying a twenty round magazine, he turns to Cameron.

"It sounds like there was no pattern to where my rounds were hitting. How big of an area did they cover?"

"Thirty centimeters."

John narrows his eyes at her.

"That's, what... twelve inches? At _six_ _hundred_ _meters_ I put _twenty_ rounds into a _one_ _foot_ circle, and you were telling me that I was hitting low, or high, or whatever?"

Cameron looks over at him.

"You were. You missed the center of the plate."

"I'm _human_, Cameron. The weapon can't do much better than I just did with it." he looks at the target for a moment, "Did any of the rounds penetrate?"

"Not at this range."

She takes the M14 and puts the M99 in front of him.

"Try this."

One dust cloud and sore shoulder later, John can see a faint spot on the plate- it's actually the desert in the background.

"I guess that did. What'll it do to a triple-eight?"

"It would take more than one round to reach the power cell or the chip."

"Damn. What about the M82?"

"You saw the T-880 using one on triple-eights. The effect is similar, but the M82 is semi-automatic."

John looks at the M99.

"Then what do we use this one for?"

Cameron stares blankly at it.

"Long range assassination and the destruction of light targets- vehicles for example."

He looks at her.

"Can we get AP rounds for it?"

She shakes her head.

"It's too new."

John sighs, realizing that the weapon's long range capabilities- and by extension, his own skill with it -will be all but worthless.

"It's just the two of us against all of Skynet's forces. We need to kill machines without endangering our own lives. Can you make some?"

"Not without materials and a lathe, but we can get a .50 barrel for it. With Raufoss rounds, you could kill a triple-eight with a headshot as easily as if it were human."

A smile slowly forms on John's face, then turns into a grin.

"That settles it. If we have to, we'll rob a military base to get some of them."

Cameron frowns.

"You had better be joking."

John shrugs.

"Half joking."

Thirty minutes later, John lays prone with his M4. While previously firing it from standing, sitting and kneeling positions, he had ignored Cameron except to ask her where his bullets were hitting.

Cameron now sits beside him playing with her hair.

"You know, that's really distracting." he says without looking at her.

She smiles to herself.

"What is?"

John tries to ignore her and squeezes the trigger.

Without the use of a scope or binoculars she is able to see the tiny crater appear on the plate two hundred meters away.

"Low."

John looks over at her.

"Of course I hit low. You keep distracting me."

She takes off her BDU jacket, revealing a white tank top which has become nearly transparent with sweat.

"I'm just sitting here."

He stares at her for a moment before realizing that she has spoken.

"Huh? What? Did you say something?"

She smiles and points down range.

"Your target's that way, John."

John looks through the reflex sight on his M4 and squeezes off another round.

"You hit even lower."

"Maybe it's the ammunition."

"It's not the ammunition."

He fires again and hits lower.

"Wow, John..." he starts squeezing the trigger, "...you just can't stop _going down_." he jerks the trigger, sending the round into the dirt in front of him.

John looks over at her without saying a word.

"What are you looking at me for?" she thrusts her chest out as she pretends to stretch, "I'm just minding my own business."

His eyes stay locked where she'd intended, and he remains silent.

"Eyes front, soldier!"

John shakes his head.

"Whatever you say."

He sends the last rounds in his magazine down range, trying to ignore Cameron's teasing, then stands up and starts walking toward the car.

Cameron pouts as she's once again ignored.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm getting the M99 out again. The scope will let me see for myself where I'm hitting."

Moments later, he lays staring through the 60x scope at the steel plate. He could cover every mark on it with the palm of his hand.

"How well am I supposed to be shooting, Cameron?"

She shrugs.

"I guess you're doing all right."

"Just 'all right'? Have you forgotten that I'm human?" he points at the sight on his M4, "This thing doesn't zoom."

She points at the M99.

"That one does."

Still annoyed with her for making him think he had shot poorly, he looks through the scope.

Another dust cloud and an even sorer shoulder later, John is able to see through the steel plate.

He grins and pats the rifle.

"I _really_ love this thing."

She raises an eyebrow as she points to herself.

"Does _this_ machine have competition?"

John pretends to stroke his chin thoughtfully as his eyes shift from the weapon to her and back.

"Can you put a hole in a steel plate from six hundred meters?"

"No."

John smiles.

"I don't know, Cam... it's not lookin' too good for you so far."

"Well, John, _I'm_ the prettier machine."

His eyes wander over her body, before shifting to the rifle.

"Hmm. That's a tough call to make..."

She takes off her tank top.

"Well, _I_ can field strip _myself_."

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 292: Dealing

Friday May 23rd, 2008

2:16pm Warehouse - Inside

John and Cameron have parked their new Ford E-Series van beside a panel truck.

John is wearing his Level IV armor under his clothes, openly carrying his Glock 17 on his hip and concealing his tiny Glock 26 in an inside the waistband holster.

Cameron stands beside him with an HK G36 loaded with a 100 round Beta C-Mag, her Glock 20, body armor, and while attempting to appear intimidating.

A Russian man dressed in black and wearing sunglasses while indoors approaches John with four bodyguards- each armed with an AN-94 Abakan rifle.

Cameron quickly scans the men and their weapons. Finding them to be a threat only to John, she prepares to shield him with her body if necessary.

John takes note of the panel truck and the rifles the men carry. Due to time travel, he mistakenly assumes the weapons to be AK-74 variants. He is prepared to be shielded by a body if the deal goes bad, but he intends for it to be the Russian's, not Cameron's.

The Russian looks over his sunglasses at John's face, then waves his guards away. His accent is barely noticeable.

"You're John? Your mother has told me a lot about you. The last time I heard from her she was worried about you after the loss of an uncle... but that was over ten years ago. I'd have expected you to be older." he offers his hand and John accepts, "My name is Alexander, but my friends call me Alex. As Sarah's son, consider yourself a very dear friend of mine. She is a good woman."

John manages to perfectly imitate a smile, even with mention of his mother.

"It's a pleasure. Alex, huh? That doesn't sound very Russian..."

Alex laughs.

"Haven't you ever heard of Alexander the Great?"

John shrugs.

"It's not cool to talk about yourself in the third person, but whatever."

"Don't mind him." Cameron says before whispering to John, "I told you to stay in school."

Alex covers his face with his hand.

"Ah yes... 'The Land of Opportunity'. The only first world nation to offer its youth a third world education."

John says nothing.

"Strictly business? Much like your mother when she isn't talking about you. You have her eyes, and the same look about you." Alex grins and addresses Cameron, "Doesn't he look just like his mother?"

Cameron simply smiles at Alex, then subtly shakes her head at John.  
Alex motions to one of his guards who quickly opens the back door of the panel truck.

"Everything that you requested. This is not the type of deal I would usually make. It is too small. I do this as a favor to you and your mother."

John looks into the back of the truck. He's surprised by the American marked crates.

"We appreciate it. Where do you get your merchandise?"

"Certain branches of your military like to keep a surprising amount of foreign made weapons and ammunition on hand, but off the books. When you send a small team into a supposedly allied nation, it's best not to have them carry American weapons, or ammunition with American headstamps, you understa-"

John cuts him off.

"You deal with SOCOM?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. In exchange for quietly offering untraceable foreign arms- mostly former Warsaw Pact -I am allowed limited access to your nation's domestic stocks."

"How limited?"

Alex grins.

"Not very."

Alex notices Cameron's interest in the truck's contents.

"Go ahead young lady. Take a look."

She looks at the AN-94 armed men then at John.

When John nods, Cameron quickly climbs into the back of the truck and rips open a crate with her bare hands.

Opening an ammunition can contained within, she smiles and tosses John a five and a half inch long rifle cartridge.

"John, Raufoss."

Alex nods.

"Indeed. Two thousand of them."

Cameron opens several more crates inspecting the ammunition within.

"Young lady, you will find nothing but depleted uranium in there. Twenty thousand 7.62mm, one hundred thousand 5.56mm, and thirty thousand 6.8mm."

John turns to Alex.

"Six point eight millimeter? I've never heard of it."

Alex looks at him in disbelief.

"You _asked_ for it."

Cameron winks at John.

"Yeah John, _remember_? You also asked for a pair of Barrett REC7's because you recognize that your M4 is obsolete. _Right_, John?" she winks again.

He frowns at her.

"Oh right... Sorry about that."

'What else did she buy without telling me?'

John sees Alex's mouth fall open as Cameron effortlessly lifts five hundred pounds of ammunition.

"Hey, Cam? Take it easy, huh?"

She looks at the stack of ammo crates in her hands, then at him.

"I am."

After money has been traded for ammunition, John smiles as he once more shakes hands with the arms dealer.

"And here I thought you might try to kill me and take my money."

Alex smiles back.

"It's still early."

John isn't amused, and looks at Cameron then at Alex's bodyguards.

"You don't have a sense of humor, I see."

"I've been shot five times in the past few months."

"As we say in my homeland, 'it sucks to be you'."

When John doesn't even crack a smile at his joke, Alex pats him on the shoulder.

"You need to lighten up, my young friend. This isn't one of your Hollywood movies- I'm not just some generic bad guy. I'm a professional businessman providing a valuable service. If you don't trust me, then trust the numbers. Even if I were a bad guy, killing my customers would be bad for business. As long as my merchandise keeps you alive, you will come back to me for more."

"It's nothing personal, Alex. I only trust myself..." he smiles at Cameron, "...and her."

"And your mother." Alex adds.

John stares at him for a moment before forcing a smile.

"Of course."

Scene 293: Planning Ahead

Friday May 23rd, 2008

3:38pm John and Cameron's Ford van

They are enroute to their apartment to pick up weapons, money, and ammunition.

Before meeting Alexander, John had rented storage units all over the city for stashing supplies.

Cameron drives while John sits in the passenger seat with an M4 magazine in his hand and an ammo can of depleted uranium 5.56x45mm rounds between his feet.

He finishes topping off a magazine with depleted uranium ammunition and slaps it into his M4 before pulling the charging handle to replace the chambered round with the first DU cartridge he has ever chambered.

"Cam? Do you think that before you tie the barrel of my M4 into a bow, you could tell me what a REC7 is?"

She smiles at the thought of not only destroying his M4, but doing so creatively.

"The REC7 is a new upper receiver for your M4. Simpler, more reliable, and chambered for the slightly superior 6.8x43mm round. The two that you now own are test models of a carbine variant which hasn't even begun trials yet."

John looks at his M4 and considers being able to increase its reliability while keeping the same lower receiver and furniture that he had felt in his hands while defending Cameron.

"John... it's similar enough to your M4 that I was hoping you'd be willing to use it... for me?"

Still wanting to keep his weapon as is, he quickly thinks of an excuse.

"We don't have any mags for it, so I-"

"It uses the same magazines as your M4."

When he slumps in his seat and stares at his rifle, she tries to cheer him up.

"John? Would you like to know what else I picked out?"

He smiles faintly and looks over.

"Sure. What else did you get?"

"I got you a Mark 14 Mod 0."

"What's that?"

"An M14 variant for-"

He cuts her off.

"We already had two M14's."

She smiles over at him.

"It's a CQB model."

"There's an M14 _for_ _indoor use_?!" John looks down, "I guess I'm slipping... I really don't know my weapons anymore..."

"John, it's only four years old."

"Oh... time travel."

"We also have two hundred high explosive 40mm grenades."

John smiles.

"I can't use _that_ many. Am I going to have help?"

She grins proudly and he regards her with fake suspicion.

"Cameron... did you buy yourself something... _German_?"

"Yes I did. The M320 grenade launcher is made by Heckler and Koch, and it's based on the AG36. It hasn't even entered mass production, but your new friend was able to procure a pair of them for us."

John looks at his M203A1 grenade launcher.

"For _us_? Do you mean that I can't even keep my grenade launcher?"

Cameron frowns.

"You should be happy. Better equipment means that we are both safer."

He goes quiet and stares at his beloved M4.

"John... I also got you a fifty caliber barrel for your M99."

In an instant his depression is replaced with elation.

"Yes! YES!" he drops his M4 on the floor as his arms wrap around Cameron, "I fucking love you!"

She laughs.

"You do? I was afraid you might prefer your M99..."

John laughs with her.

"You don't have any competition from my M99."

"Oh? What made you change your mind about _her_?"

"_She_ talks too loud..." he rubs his right shoulder, "...and there's this weird pain I get whenever I spend time with her..."

After stopping at their apartment to pick up nearly all of their weapons, they sit within the first and largest storage unit using stacked ammunition crates as a table and chairs while they attach accessories to their chosen weapons.

While John is mounting a 6x ACOG sight on his new Mk 14 rifle, Cameron snatches his M4A1 from the center of the table.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?!"

He expects it to be bent in half, but she simply sets it close to herself and begins disassembling it.

"I won't damage it, but you are not going to be using it like this."

After only a few _minutes_ she hands it back to him with a REC7 upper receiver, M320 grenade launcher, reflex sight, and tactical light.

"Thanks... I guess..."

As he examines the weapon, Cameron holds up his M4 upper receiver with the M203.

"John, I'll let you keep this if you agree not to use it in combat."

His eyes move from the the M4 upper to the REC7 in his hands.

"John?"

When he doesn't answer, he hears the plastic foregrip creak as she begins applying pressure to it.

"Okay!"

She smiles at him.

"You have no idea how much better that makes me feel."

Planning to attach the M203A1 to it, Cameron begins to install the second REC7 on the M16 lower receiver stolen from the Nevada gunshop.

John finishes adding various accessories- a 6x optical sight, an AN/PVS-14 night scope, vertical foregrip, and a tactical light -to his Mk 14 rifle and begins swapping the 30 rounds of 5.56x45mm in each of his M4 magazines for 28 rounds of 6.8x43mm.

He watches Cameron as she examines the bore of the Mk 14 before adjusting the sights for him- all in only a few seconds.

"Thanks Cameron. I wish that I could do that."

"You're welcome."

With his skills paling in comparison to Cameron's, he leaves the rest of the work to her as he places his laptop on the makeshift table. A large portion of the data on gray's hard drive has been copied to John's laptop.

"Cam, _this_..." he turns the laptop so that she can see the screen, "...is where we're going next."

"A scrapyard?"

John smiles and begins opening delivery and financial records he has hacked from the company's computers.

"Look at this. They're buying twice as much metal as they're selling."

"What kind of metal and who's financing them?"

"I don't know. There's no information on the volume or the content of even one shipment, just the weight and value are shown. Their only investor is a front- the address is an empty building here in the city."

Cameron narrows her eyes at him.

"And how exactly did you find out that it's empty?"

He shrugs and picks up his Mk 14, loading it with a 20 round magazine of depleted uranium ammunition.

"If I can send _you_ off to follow someone who hunts terminators for a living, then _I_ can drive by an empty building on my way to- nevermind."

"Fine. What do you think we should do?"

"Well, since the grays were involved, that means-"

"I know what it means."

John sighs.

"A recon mission would be a waste of time when we both know that Skynet is involved, so let's just bring some C-4 and take out whatever we find."

Cameron looks at the Mk 14 in John's hands.

"Your plan is for the two of us to _attack_ a Skynet interest?"

"Not _quite_. We'll only start shooting if we have to. I'm more interested in seeing if there are any trucks equipped with passive GPS units. If the place were _really_ taking in metal faster than it's shipping it out, then they'd have run out of space by now. I want to know where it's going."

She watches as he bounces the weapon in his hands to get used to the weight.

"Are you bringing that?"

"That depends." John grins, "On a scale from one to fucked, what'll it do to a triple-eight?"

"John... hyper-alloy is very durable."

He gives the weapon a disappointed look.

"What _will_ it do?"

"At close range, it will penetrate a T-888's cranial armor-"

"Then what's the problem?"

Cameron ignores the interruption.

"But the chip is a very small target and you have limited ammunition."

He looks at her for a moment.

"You don't seem too worried about this... Why not?"

"Because you have a good plan."

John laughs.

"I don't even _have_ a plan."

Cameron picks up the100 round Beta C-Mag for her G36 and begins loading it with depleted uranium rounds.

"Your plan is to minimize risk to ourselves by only going in once."

"That counts as a plan?"

"Yes."

"Cameron, we don't even know if the place is important or not. We don't know what's there."

She smiles.

"That's why we're going. Why are you trying to talk me out of it?"

"Because I didn't even talk you into it. I threw out a stupid idea and you're just going along with it."

Cameron glares at him.

"Are you saying that I can't think for myself?"

"No, I'm saying that you have too much faith in me. You asked me what weapon I was bringing, when you should have been asking if I was a complete moron."

It's apparent to her that his problem is a lack of confidence in himself.

"John, you were there when we went back to the warehouse with the UAV's. You witnessed the cost of going to in twice. You were shot, my armor was damaged, and the T-880 was _destroyed_. Whether you realize it or not, you've thought this through."

"It still seems stupid."

"John, that's what your mother would want you to think."

Scene 294: Down in the Dumps

Sunday May 25th, 2008

1:59am Scrapyard

In the dark and 300 yards from the front gate, John and Cameron approach while staying low and quiet.

The scrapyard is surrounded by a four foot concrete wall topped with a chainlink fence, but the front gate is open. A wide road bordered by heavy machinery, heaps of scrap metal, and crushed cars leads to a warehouse with outdoor lights in the center of the property.

A uniformed security guard is posted at the front gate and two additional guards are visible as they patrol the outside of the warehouse.

John wears Level IV body armor and carries his 7.62x51mm Mk 14 battle rifle, a Glock 17 in a thigh holster, a concealed Glock 26, and a small bag containing his laptop.

Cameron too wears armor along with her 5.56x45mm HK G36 with attached M320 grenade launcher, her Barrett M82 on her back, her 10mm Glock 20 on her thigh, and a travel bag slung over her shoulder. Unlike John's bag, hers contains magazines, grenades, thermite, flares, and 6 bricks of C-4.

Cameron looks at John's weapons and magazines, unsure if she should be impressed or disappointed by his willingness to carry so much weight. Without attachments or ammunition, his Mk 14 would weigh almost two pounds _more_ than had his _fully loaded _M4 and M203 grenade launcher _combined_.

Noticing her gaze, John glances over at Cameron and her arsenal with a faint smile before turning his attention back to the distant gate.

Cameron switches vision modes while watching the guards.

"They're human. Armed with Beretta 92's."

John instantly regrets choosing his Mk 14 over his REC7.

"Grays?"

She watches the men in short sleeved uniforms for a moment and spots a barcode tattoo.

"Yes."

The two of them go prone and John squints through his night scope and 6x ACOG sight at the distant figures.

"What do you think? Should we take them from here?"

"With these weapons we have the advantage at any range, but-" she decides not to remind him of his mortality, "John... it's your call."

Watching the grays through his scope he takes note of the nearby scrap that may provide cover against Cameron's G36 but only concealment against his far more powerful Mk 14.

Settling his reticle on the farthest gray, he flips his fire selector to single.

"Cameron, when the farthest one hits the ground you take the next farthest."

"What about the one at the gate?"

He barely whispers as he holds his breath preparing to take the shot.

"I'll take care of it. Ready?"

"Yes."

John squeezes the trigger and the farthest gray's head explodes before the others hear the shot.

Cameron's G36 roars as she sends a burst of 8 rounds into the second guard.

Before either of them can target the gray at the gate, he dashes behind the wall and John sends four rounds through the concrete.

With her cybernetic eyes, Cameron can see the blood spatter.

"They're down." she whispers.

He keeps watching through his night scope.

"Move forward."

She jumps to her feet and sprints diagonally to the right, making herself a more difficult target and keeping herself out of John's line of fire.

As she approaches the concrete wall to the right of the gate, five guards try to exit the warehouse.

The first gray stops in the doorway when he spots a nearby corpse and a following gray bumps into him just as John sends a round through the first one's chest. The gray's body barely slows the projectile and it continues through the man behind him- killing them both.

As the other three run out of the warehouse and scatter, John sends one more to the ground.

Staying low, Cameron moves to the open gate and peers around the corner.

Her surprise at the three extra bodies does not stop her from identifying the two surviving grays.

She sends a burst into one as he reaches cover, then fires a dozen rounds through a thin piece of sheet metal as the second gray takes cover behind it.

From her position, Cameron motions for John to move up, and he begins to advance with his weapon raised.

Cameron identifies a T-888 as it leaves the warehouse and she opens fire while aiming for the neck.

*clink**clink**clink*  
*clink**clink**clink*  
*clink**clink**clink*  
*clink**clink**clink*

The machine stands just long enough for a pair of John's rounds to hit its chest- he hadn't known it was a machine.

Cameron watches for more targets and John reloads his Mk 14 as he reaches her.

"Ready?" he asks.

"Yes, let's move."

"You stick to the right, I'll move along the left."

Cameron begins advancing down the right side of the road to the warehouse, while John crosses to the left side.

They soon near the corpse of the farthest guard, but John ignores it as he watches for more threats through his scope.

Hearing Cameron's G36 as it spits metal, he shifts his aim to her target just in time to see another gray go down.

John snaps his weapon back to his own side as he and Cameron continue their advance.

As they reach the downed T-888, Cameron pulls out her switchblade.

"Watch my back."

John watches all directions as best he can while she quickly removes and pockets the machine's chip.

The two scan for threats, then leave the dead machine where it is as they turn toward the door that the grays had used.

John reaches it first, but allows Cameron to go ahead of him. He has matured significantly, and accepts that she is better equipped for night fighting, close quarters combat, and is far more likely to survive gunshot wounds than he is.

Cameron looks at him for brief moment, then smashes the door open and moves inside with John entering right behind her.

Scene 295: Fragments

Sunday May 25th, 2008

2:10am Scrapyard - Warehouse interior

Cameron and John have just moved through the door.

The inside is dark, and John must use his night scope in order to see.

There are three trucks parked side by side facing the large garage door which John and Cameron had opted not to use. Large crates sit beside as well as behind the trucks.

On the left wall is a doorway to the office portion of the structure, and on the back wall is a second garage door.

Cameron advances toward the trucks with her G36 at the ready.

John keeps his Mk 14 battle rifle shouldered and trained on the office door as he slowly follows Cameron.

She crouches to look under the vehicles, switching vision modes constantly as she searches for humans or machines.

"Cam, check the crates."

She rips one open and John hears her freeze, but he can't risk taking his eyes off of the door.

"Cam?"

She doesn't answer and simply breaks open a second.

"Cameron?"

Then a third.

"Cameron, what is it?"

Then a fourth.

"Cameron?!"

He can hear the shock in her voice.

"John... it's..."

"What?"

"It's..."

He dreads the answer but he asks again.

"What's in there?"

"It's just scrap metal."

Cameron has to quickly take over watching for threats as John abandons his duty without warning.

He walks over and looks through his night sight into the crates, finding that some contain scrap while others contain lustrous metal ingots.

Using all of his strength he tries to roll one of them onto its side, but fails.

Seeing his struggle, Cameron takes several steps toward him and effortlessly pushes two of the crates onto their sides before continuing to watch for grays and T-888's.

After watching through his night sight- which does not display true-color -as the contents spill onto the floor, he kneels down and touches one of the ingots, finding it to be vaguely familiar.

John turns to Cameron in desperation.

"What kind of metal is this? Tell me it's not just steel..."

Cameron doesn't take her eyes off of the office door.

"It isn't steel."

He looks closely through his night sight at the ingot.

"Then what is it?"

"It's iron."

Cameron doesn't see his face, but she hears the anger in his voice.

"Are you making fun of me?" he asks, taking a crowbar from atop one of the crates.

"John, there's nothing in them."

Ignoring her, he lets his Mk 14 hang from its sling and turns on its attached tactical light. Able to see, he starts breaking open crates.

"John, turn that off!"

After opening several, he drops the crowbar and shines his light inside them.

Intending to shut off his light before it gets him killed, Cameron grabs him as he leans into a crate.

"John, there's nothing here!"

When she violently spins him around he pushes a fistful of black metallic fragments into her chest.

"Then what the fuck is _this_?!"

She cups her hand under the falling pieces, catching and examining several of them.

"Manganese oxide." she looks up at him, "This is slag, John."

He looks at the misshapen fragments in confusion.

"From what?"

Her gaze shifts from the slag to the iron ingots.

"Manganese is a deoxidizer used in steel production, but... Skynet doesn't care about that..."

He shakes his head.

"Then why is it here?"

Cameron shuts off his light, leaving him in darkness as she turns away and resumes scanning for threats.

"John, we need to find out where this is coming from. Do what you came here to do."

He kneels by one of the crates, and takes out his laptop, hoping that the trucks are equipped with passive GPS devices from which he can wirelessly download data.

John doesn't look up from his work.

"If Skynet doesn't care about this, then why is it so important?"

"I said that Skynet doesn't care about _steel_ production."

"Then why-"

"John, we can talk later."

After several minutes he puts away his laptop, having found nothing.

"Did you find it?"

"They must not be wireless." he thinks for a moment, "Do you know where to find the VIN numbers on these trucks?"

He can't see her smile in the dark.

"Watch the door."

John trains his Mk 14 on the office door.

Each VIN number takes Cameron only a few seconds to find.

"Okay, John."

"Which truck has the lightest load?" he asks.

"The one closest to you is empty."

He continues watching the office door.

"Open the garage door."

Cameron quickly reaches the controls for the door.

As the garage door opens, the interior of the warehouse becomes dimly lit by the outdoor lights.

Glancing outside and seeing no one, Cameron turns her attention to the office door as she begins moving toward John.

They each fire a burst as soon as the office door begins moving, and two grays emerge due only to their momentum- killed by bullets passing through the door before they'd even been seen.

John and Cameron smell smoke as they move toward the office.

Entering, they find flames coming out of a trash can. Neither of them bother checking it, as even without a sense of smell they would have known it contained burning paper and atleast one hard drive- the latter of which John has already hacked everything of value from.

"John, we're done here."

He nods.

"I'll hotwire the truck."

Cameron stands guard while he starts the vehicle, then she begins walking out of the warehouse as he drives slowly behind her. John is more vulnerable while driving than if he were on foot, and both of them know it.

Arriving at the T-888 she had killed earlier, Cameron reaches into her bag for thermite causing John to pull up alongside her and shout.

"Cameron, throw it in the back!"

She pulls out the thermite anyway.

"You aren't reprogramming withou-"

"I don't want to reprogram it! I've seen your spare parts! All you have is a hand!"

Cameron isn't sure why he would have looked for- let alone inspected -her repair stock, but she knows that he's right. With no argument, she tosses the machine into the truck and continues walking to the street.

Finding no sign of Skynet forces, she lays her M82 on the floor of the cab and climbs in next to John.

Scene 296: Vandalism

Sunday May 25th, 2008

2:27am Stolen transport truck

John drives down a nearly abandoned back street.

Cameron prepares to search for a GPS tracker by dismantling the interior of the vehicle.

John glances over as Cameron rolls down her window.

"If you're so concerned by the metal we found, then why didn't we destroy it?"

She rips off a piece of the dashboard and throws it out the window.

"We didn't destroy it because it's unimportant."

Cameron rips off another piece of the dash and tosses it out as well.

"Then why did it worry you?"

She answers while discarding another piece of the vehicle.

"Coltan is columbite-tantalite. That's niobium, tantalum, iron, and manganese. Skynet only cares about the tantalum."

"Are you saying that we found coltan leftovers?"

Another piece of the interior flies into the street.

"No."

"Then why are you-"

"We found the leftovers from iron smelting."

"But you said that Skynet doesn't care about iron."

More of the vehicle is discarded.

"It doesn't. The only reason that it would have slag and refined iron is if it had come from the production of something else. If we had only found iron, then it would have meant little. The slag tells us that Skynet is producing iron in secret, or keeping some of its production a secret, or more likely it is disguising something else as iron production."

Cameron sets off a car alarm with a thrown piece of the interior.

"Then what's Skynet hiding?"

"Tantalum purification."

"That's wasteful just to use it for cover. Why throw the iron away like that?"

"It's already waste from the tantalum refinement, and iron is easy to procure. Skynet wouldn't waste resources producing its own for use in the war."

John shakes his head.

"Right, so Skynet's _wasting_ resources by producing it _from_ waste just to _hide_ something else? Cameron, that seems awfully convoluted."

She throws a final piece of the cab out the window before deciding that they won't find a GPS device.

"Not to Skynet."

He sighs.

"I don't understand how you can be so sure."

"I already told you how. The tantalum is all that Skynet cares about."

"But why go to the trouble of covering its tracks with the iron? Skynet could just... sell the tantalum to itself and store it in a bunker."

"John, what do you think those sixteen Resistance fighters would do if they found out about a Skynet controlled smelter?"

He gives up.

"Okay, Cam. What do we do when we find it?"

Cameron doesn't answer.

"Cameron?"

"John... we have atleast three targets."

"_Three_ targets? _Not_ including tonight?"

"Not including tonight. There are atleast two smelters and there is atleast one tantalum stockpile."

He squeezes the steering wheel in frustration and speaks through clenched teeth.

"Do we need help with this? Do I have to contact those Resistance fighters?"

Cameron looks out her window.

"John, stop the truck."

"Why?"

John slams on the brakes when she opens her door without warning.

"John, leave the truck here." she points at a red hatchback a few hundred feet to their right, "We're taking that car."

He looks at her in confusion.

"Then why not drive over there instead of carrying guns through the street?"

She smiles at him.

"I'll show you."

Stepping out of the truck, Cameron picks her M82 up off the floor of the cab and walks toward the rear of the truck. Lifting the dead T-888 onto her shoulder, she sprints toward the red car.

John hops out and catches up with her just as she loads the machine into the hatchback.

"John, start the car."

He hotwires it in a matter of seconds.

"What did you want to show me?"

She smiles again.

"I'm going to show you why we don't need any help. Plug your ears. This is going to be loud."

Cameron turns her back to him, raises her M82, and sends a round of Raufoss into the gas tank of the truck.

The incendiary round ignites the fuel and causes a small explosion.

She throws her rifle into the car and gets into the passenger seat.

"John, I saw you with your M99. I have no doubt that you can do that to a stationary vehicle from atleast one _kilometer_ away, and _I_ can do that to a moving vehicle from _three_ kilometers."

John stares at the burning wreck.

"John?"

He turns to her.

"Huh?"

"We should go before someone calls the police."

John stares at her for a moment then looks at the flaming truck again.

"...Oh! Right."

Putting the car in gear, they drive away.

Scene 297: The Morning After

Sunday May 25th, 2008

12:55pm John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

John sleeps with _his_ head resting on _Cameron's_ chest.

She has been unable to move for fear of waking him, but does not mind.

Cameron can feel John's heart rate and respiration increase as he begins to wake.

After a moment, he realizes why his pillow is warm and plants a kiss on it.

"Morning." he says, smiling up at her.

She looks concerned, then smiles back.

"You did well last night."

He manages to override the preferred comment of his sixteen year old mind.

"So did you. You don't know how happy it made me to see you being so _careful_."

Smiling down at him for a moment, her concern returns.

"Are you okay?"

This time, John agrees with his sixteen year old side, and starts moving his hand up the inside of her thigh.

"Better than _that_."

Cameron's hand gently closes around his wrist.

"John, please. Are you sure you're all right?"

John looks at her in confusion.

"I don't understand... Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because of what happened last night."

He stares at her for a long time, then looks away.

"You mean... that I'm broken."

"You're not broken."

John doesn't look at her.

"I am. I killed people and it doesn't bother me. I don't even know how many I killed."

She opens her mouth to tell him 'Five, possibly seven', but quickly thinks better of it.

John looks over at her.

"Why doesn't it hurt?"

She thinks for a moment.

"Because it was part of your mission."

Cameron doesn't anticipate the spin he puts on her words.

"You mean it's okay because I'm following my programming?"

"John, what was your _mission_?"

Closing his eyes he shakes his head.

"I didn't have one. I didn't know what would be there."

"You had no reason to go?"

"Skynet was involved."

"Then your mission is to stop Skynet?"

John realizes what she's doing and smiles.

"You, Cam. _You're_ my mission."

She smiles back, but John slowly turns sorrowful.

"What's wrong?"

He looks at her for a moment.

"When you blew up that truck... what were you telling me?"

"That we didn't need help."

"Cameron... is your plan to kill truck drivers and plant workers until they shut down the smelters?"

She frowns.

"No."

He tries to read her.

"Would it bother you to do that?"

"...Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you would be upset with me."

John shakes his head and turns away.

"John, that's not fair! You _asked_ me and I told you!"

"Cam, I'm not upset. I'm just confused."

She tilts her head, even with it against her pillow.

"By what?"

He looks at her.

"By you. You're the most sensitive and caring person I've ever known, but you don't value human life."

"Sensitive? Do you mean empathetic or delicate?"

"You tell me."

"You mean delicate."

"What makes you say that?"

"You choose your words carefully with me, and you spend an excessive amount of time trying to make me happy."

He smiles.

"I meant both."

"But I don't have empathy like humans do."

John's face turns to stone.

"What am I feeling right now?"

Thinking for a moment, she looks away.

"It hurt you to hear me talk about myself like that."

John smiles again and pulls her gaze to his.

"That _is_ empathy."

"But I've only ever been able to feel the pain of one person besides you."

John's smile fades.

"You're talking about future me."

"No."

"Then who?"

"Your mother."

John's mouth falls open.

"That _bitch_? How could you feel _anything_ for _her_?"

"She was a damaged guardian... like me..."

"Listen to me, you are _nothing_ like her. You're better in every way."

"We both nearly killed you."

"You weren't _you_."

The pain in her eyes breaks his heart.

"I was me when I hit you." she touches his face where she had struck him, "I was me, and I hurt you anyway."

Mirroring what she had done in the past, he presses her hand against his face and leans into it.

"The only thing that can hurt me is to see you unhappy. The look on your face is hurting more than anything else ever can."

When she doesn't say anything, he sits up and pulls the covers off of her.

"Come on, Cam. Get up. Up. Out of bed."

"Why?"

"Because I need _normal_ exercise, too." he reaches underneath her with a grin and squeezes her backside, "_And_ because I want to see you in those tight little shorts..."

Scene 298: Priorities

Sunday May 25th, 2008

2:01pm An L.A. park

In the middle of their run, John had stopped for a bottle water.

He has just tossed the empty bottle into a garbage can.

"Ready, John?"

Cameron doesn't wait for an answer, and starts to run again.

"Hey, wait!" he calls after her.

She stops and turns around.

"You need to run. You need exercise."

Reaching her side, he smiles and takes her hand.

"It can wait. Let's just walk for a little while."

Hand in hand, they walk slowly in silence, simply enjoying the others presence.

"Cam? Are there any questions that you have? Anything at all?"

"Nothing important."

"Well... what if we disagree on what's important?"

She looks away for a moment, then turns back.

"Why did you inspect my repair stock?"

Cameron feels his hand reflexively start to open, but he recovers and continues holding her hand as he thinks.

"Because I love you."

"Your only concern was whether or not I had enough materials?"

John remains silent for a moment.

"Yes."

Cameron looks down at his hand as it grasps hers.

"You're lying."

He smiles faintly.

"I know."

All she had had at the time was a T-888 hand. John had removed- then returned -one of its fingertips.

"Can you tell me why you took it apart?"

"I needed to compare it with other alloys. Modern, special purpose alloys."

"Why?"

"Because I couldn't take you with me, and I can't remember what hyper-alloy looks like. I mean not _exactly_ what it looks like."

She looks at him with concern.

"You were investigating Skynet alone?"

"No, I was just looking at alloys. I don't know much about them. I need to figure some of this stuff out on my own, you know?"

"You feel that I'm holding you back by giving you the answers?"

He stops and turns to her.

"You're not holding me back. You keep me going _forward_."

Smiling at each other, they continue walking hand in hand.

"Anything else? Any other questions?"

"Did you find anything? Did you find any alloys that Skynet might be interested in?"

He smiles at her.

"No, I didn't."

"Nothing?"

John shrugs.

"None of them were light enough for aircraft, or durable enough for ground vehicles."

"There are other uses besides airframes and armor assets. Electrical circuits or protection from electromagnetic fields."

"Huh? You can use metal to block EMP's?"

"No."

"But you said-"

"I said _protection_. Some alloys are used to _redirect_ the energy, guiding it around something in order to protect it."

"What kind of metals can do that?"

She stops in place and smiles at him.

"Most are _iron_ alloys."

John doesn't return her smile.

"Is that what Skynet wants the iron for?"

"I don't know."

"Did it- I mean last time -did it use nukes in L.A.?"

"Yes."

"But _I_ survived... is that what this is about? Is it going to hit harder this time? To make sure that it kills me?"

"I don't know."

"We need to find out where those trucks have been."

In an instant, he turns and starts heading back to their apartment, but nearly falls over when she doesn't release his hand.

"John, can't we do that later?"

Turning to her, he sees her pleading eyes.

"I'm sorry, Cameron. You're right, it can wait."

Scene 299: Loaded for Gray

Wednesday May 28th, 2008

5:25pm John and Cameron's apartment - Dining room

Over the past two days, John has hacked into the computer systems of California's Department of Motor Vehicles, and those of the California Highway Patrol.

He has discovered that all three trucks at the scrapyard were registered sequentially to the same four businesses over the previous two years. The most recent three were fake- two abandoned buildings and one apparently random, private residence -but the first owner proved more interesting.

The original business to which the trucks had been registered, had merged with the first of the fake businesses six months after the purchase of the vehicles.

Cameron believes that it was taken over by a T-888 posing as the business owner. Further, she claims to have previously encountered a T-888 posing as a tycoon.

John and Cameron sit at the table with their selected firearms between them.

They prepare for war.

Cameron places her G3A3 in a duffel bag.

"We need to destroy the triple-eight, then-"

John interrupts as he looks up from his REC7 and M320.

"I know what the plan is. One night, two targets."

His gaze returns to his REC7.

"Is there something wrong with your weapon?"

"Yeah. There is."

"What is it."

He gives her a look of minor annoyance.

"You're making me fight with a weapon that I'm not used to. I'm not used to reloading after 28 shots. I'm not used to the recoil. I'm not used to the new grenade launcher."

"You won't notice much difference in recoil."

"This thing might get me killed, Cameron. No one should ever, _ever_, carry a weapon until they're used to it."

"You've had nearly a week to get used to it."

"_Getting used to it_ means thousands of rounds and hundreds of reloads. Not just a few detail strips."

"It uses the same lower receiver and magazines that your M4 did. Reloading is the same."

John shakes his head.

"No it isn't. My mags hold two fewer rounds. That means I need to do it at a different time."

"You weren't used to your Mark 14."

"But that was a completely different weapon. With this one, I might just default to my training. I'm used to the M16 family, and the old 20 round magazines were before my time. I've only ever used M4's and M16's loaded with 30 round magazines... or drum mags."

Her G36 goes into her bag.

"You'll be fine."

John looks at her in disbelief.

"Don't you realize how serious this is?"

"John, you're going to be fine."

'What if I'm not?' he thinks, while placing his REC7 in his own bag.

Turning to his Mk 14, he sighs.

"The only flaws are the weight and the 20 round capacity."

Cameron holds up one of her Beta C-Mags.

"They make these for the M14, as well."

He looks at the magazine for a moment.

"One hundred rounds of seven-six-two? That's awesome for support fire, but that would weigh a ton."

"Ten pounds."

"So, take a twelve pound rifle, then add a vertical grip, two optical sights, a tac light, _and_ ten pounds of ammunition? No thanks... Not unless I know that I'm going to need sustained fire."

She watches him set the Mk 14 in his bag with the REC7, then sees him add four M14 magazines in addition to the twelve already in the bag.

"Why do you need so many?"

Instead of answering he retrieves one of them and hands it to her. She looks at the ammunition he has loaded it with.

"Ballistic tip hollow points..." she looks up at him, "...this is civilian hunting ammunition."

He takes it back and tosses it into the bag.

"_Gray_ hunting ammunition." he quips.

Scene 300: Driving Stick

Wednesday May 28th, 2008

6:03pm John and Cameron's recently stolen vehicle

John drives while Cameron rides shotgun with her G36.

"John, which rifle are you going to use?"

"The Mark 14. If you're right, then we're about to meet a triple-eight up close." he glances at her G36 and G3A3, both near her, "Which one are you carrying?"

She looks at the weapons.

"Both."

John sighs and turns back to the road.

'That is _so_ not fair. Atleast she isn't-'

"Cameron? Are you going to carry your M82 again?"

"No..."

'Maybe it isn't so bad.'

"...but I'll be carrying your M99 for you, because I know that you can't."

John winces.

'That last part seemed tacked on...'

"Why?"

"I've noticed how you look at my weapons when I carry so many."

"Cam, your M82 weighs thirty pounds and it's semi-auto with a ten round mag. My single shot M99 weighs twenty-five pounds. _Plus_, we shouldn't need either of them tonight. It's not worth carrying it just to make me feel better- which it _doesn't_."

"You aren't jealous of my weaponry?"

"No, Cam."

Seeing him subtly flexing his muscles brings a faint smile to her face. His appearance doesn't affect her feelings for him, but she's happy to see that he is constantly trying to better himself physically as well as mentally.

Her smile fades.

"You feel inferior to me?"

He looks at her for a moment, then turns back to the road.

"Yes."

"But I'm not human."

He shakes his head.

"I'm still a guy."

"I make you feel inadequate as a male?"

She receives a long stare.

"Am I?"

"No." she says, placing her hand on his thigh.

The car swerves slightly as her hand moves farther over.

"That's not my ego you're stroking."

"I know."

"Are you sure this is a good time?"

"We have one hundred fifty-two minutes of travel remaining."

"No, I mean because I'm driving."

"Well _I'm_ not driving."

The car swerves again.

'That's debatable...'

***************************************************************************************


	21. Scenes 301 to 310

**Predaking50ae Scenes 301-310**

***************************************************************************************Scene 301: Home Invasion

Wednesday May 28th, 2008

8:49pm Small residential home - Back yard

John wears armor and carries his Mk 14, fully expecting a close quarters encounter with a T-888.

Cameron also wears armor and has her G3A3 in her hands with her G36 with M320 slung behind her.

The pair approach the back door of the home.

Cameron reaches the door jamb beside the lock, while John stands by the hinges.

"Ready?" she whispers.

John turns on his tactical light and nods.

"Knock it down."

She strikes the door knob, separating it from the door and sending it skittering across the floor inside.

With the door moving, Cameron dashes in diagonally left, while John goes diagonally right.

They find a large room with one closed door on the right wall, and two on the left.

"Clear!" John shouts, with Cameron echoing him a moment later. Until recently, she hadn't been expected to behave like a human soldier, and it is still a new experience.

John moves to the door on the right wall. His foot slams into it near the lock, sending splintered molding into the room beyond.

The pieces don't even hit the floor before he's inside

Finding a lone man within, the Mk 14's muzzle is kept in line with the man's sternum.

"Down on the ground! Down now!"

John sees terror in the man's eyes, and is certain he's human. Human or not, he's still a potential threat, and he isn't complying.

As John advances toward him, the Mk 14's barrel seems to home in on his solar plexis. John doesn't slow down, and the small surface area of the muzzle collides with the man's solar plexis as he forces him to the floor with it.

The man has the wind knocked from him and John takes several steps back.

"Who else is here?!"

The man struggles to breath.

"WHO ELSE?!"

"N-n-no one! Just me!"

The man is already down, but John needs to see something.

"Put your hands up!"

The man raises his hands, and John's Mk 14 discharges, executing the gray.

"Clear!" he shouts to Cameron.

Turning, he quickly moves to support her as she enters her second doorway.

Cameron smashes the door open and rushes through, finding a hallway.

One door on the left, one on the right, and one at the end of the hall.

Cameron moves forward with John right behind her.

She nears the two doors and hand signals to tell him that she's taking the one on the right.

The sheetrock wall to their right explodes, sending a cloud of white powder into the air as a T-888 emerges.

John is left momentarily blinded while he blinks away the dust in his eyes.

The machine quickly identifies Cameron as the greater threat, but John as the easier kill.

John is barely arm's length from the limb severing and flesh rending power of the machine.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Cameron screams.

Cameron grips the machine's right arm as it reaches for John. She uses all of her strength to pull it around in front of her, placing herself between the machine and John.

Using a free hand, she rips her weapon's from their slings and lets them drop to the floor before the machine can use them against her or John.

John recovers from his momentary blindness and watches as Cameron struggles with the larger and more powerful machine.

He raises his rifle but, the battling terminators won't stay still long enough for him to fire.

"Get down!" John shouts to her.

Cameron has a better idea. She smashes her left hand into the wall above a power outlet, ripping the wiring out of the wall.

The machine sees it coming and grips her arm.

Cameron changes her plan, intending to shock herself _and_ the machine.

She doesn't get the chance. Her struggle with the machine over the electrical wire has allowed John an opening.

A burst of depleted uranium 7.62mm slams into the side of the T-888's head, then another, and another, and another.

John slams home a fresh 20 round magazine, but the machine's eyes glow red and start to fade. Cameron releases the machine and it falls to the floor.

Cameron retrieves her weapons, slinging one by tying the end of the broken sling directly to the weapon's stock.

Her and John share brief eye contact- the most they can afford now.

Since the machine had emerged from the room on the right, she opts to leave the likely empty room to John and takes the one on the left.

Entering, she scans the room and finds nothing of interest.

She hears John across the hall.

"Clear!" he shouts.

John moves out into the hallway, and heads for the room at the end of the hall.

"Clear!" she shouts.

As John reaches the doorway, Cameron arrives behind.

She gently pulls him back and moves him to the hinged side of the door.

John doesn't allow his annoyance to show as they nod at one another.

The door goes down and Cameron goes left, running face first into a Beretta armed gray waiting in ambush.

She grips his weapon hand and continues forward to clear John's path.

John's tactical light blinds and stuns a shotgun armed gray just long enough for John to put him down with a burst to the head.

The hand of Cameron's gray along with the steel frame of his Beretta give under the pressure she applies. Before he can even cry out in pain, she smashes his own weapon into his skull- caving it in.

John scans left and right, then lets his rifle hang from its sling and turns to Cameron.

"Are you okay? Are you damaged?"

She smiles.

"John, I'm not that fragile."

John glances around the room.

"I'm not seeing a computer."

Cameron looks down the hallway.

"The triple-eight's chip may have been our only chance."

John shakes his head as he starts going through drawers.

"What was I supposed to do?"

"I didn't say that you made a mistake, but I could have handled it."

John starts dumping drawers onto the floor to save time.

"Well I had to be sure."

"I know, John."

Cameron rips open a locked filing cabinet and flips through the documents within- memorizing them instantly.

"John, there's nothing here."

He moves on to another set of drawers and starts dumping them out as well.

"Cameron?"

She looks over at him.

"Did you find something."

"No... I just..." he turns to face her, "Thank you. For saving me again. That machine would have torn me apart."

Cameron tries not to think about what an unarmed machine could- and probably would -do to John if it got a hand on him.

"You killed it when you thought it was going to hurt me."

He turns back to emptying drawers.

"That doesn't matter. You said it yourself. You were fine, and I destroyed our intel. I screwed up."

"You didn't screw up. If I were in your position, I'd have done the same."

"Good, 'cause I'd do it again. I'm not taking chances with you."

"I'm not with you, either." Cameron kneels to check the pockets of the gray she killed, "I hope that you'll understand if I ever have to- John, this one has an ID."

He glances over his shoulder, then tries to ignore the blood, brain, and skull on the floor as he searches the gray he shot in the head.

"So does this one... Cam, get that machine back to the car. I'll keep looking until you're ready to leave."

"All right."

***************************************************************************************Scene 302: Sneaking Mission

Wednesday May 28th, 2008

10:29pm Large warehouse - Outside

John still wears his body armor, and carries his REC7- to which Cameron has transferred his night sight for him.

Cameron once again has her armor, along with her G3A3 in her hands and her G36 on her back. This time, she carries her munitions bag.

The front of the building has a row of loading doors with four panel trucks and one semi-trailer truck backed up to them, while the grounds surrounding the warehouse consist of nothing more than asphalt.

Nervous after finding no one outside, John and Cameron reach the back door.

"Cam, what do you think?"

She switches from her G3A3 to her G36 with a 100 round magazine and M320.

"You _know_ what I think."

She grips the door knob and slowly twists until the mechanism snaps, immediately entering low and quiet with John close behind.

The building has exits on all walls, an office to their right, and a row of loading doors straight ahead with stacks of crates near the doors.

With no one visible, the pair move toward the office.

Cameron stops and puts her hand against John's chest, shaking her head at him.

Gritting his teeth, he stays put as Cameron moves toward the door alone.

When she grasps the door handle, she finds it unlocked and opens it quietly.

Cameron moves through the door with her G36 raised and sees one man sitting at a desk with his back to her.

Sneaking forward, she reaches the man and strikes him in the back of the neck, severing his spinal column.

After confirming the presence of a barcode, she calmly walks out of the room and motions for John to enter.

Seeing several computers in the room, John begins taking them apart with his multi-tool while Cameron once again treats entire stacks of documents like flip books.

Once John has extracted the hard drives, he puts them in ziplock bags before tossing them into Cameron's ammo bag and looking at her.

"Check the trucks?"

She wants to get John away from danger as soon as possible, but knows that they have to find out what's being transported.

After a brief hesitation, she nods.

"We check the trucks."

They stay low, quiet, and keep their rifles shouldered while moving toward the loading doors.

Cameron unlocks and opens the one with the semi-trailer truck backed up against it, and then looks at John for a moment before opening the trailer's door.

Inside, sit three small, tracked vehicles, and one larger tracked vehicle. The three smaller ones have recognizable firearms mounted on them, but the large one is equipped with something that John has never seen before.

"What the fuck...?" John turns on his tactical light for a better look, "Where did these come from?"

Cameron compares the vehicles with those in her database.

"Unmanned ground vehicles, but I have no data on these UGV's."

John takes a look at the weapons.

"Two SAW's and... this looks like a scaled up SAW... What is it?"

"It's an M240. A belt fed 7.62 machine gun."

John points at the weapons and looks at Cameron.

"Can we take these?"

"Yes, but not now. We'll take the truck and remove them later."

Cameron walks up to one of the smaller machines and rips off a panel before tearing out a handful of wires.

"Did we just find _another_ Skynet operation?"

She walks toward another of the small UGV's.

"No."

John looks at the unmanned ground vehicles as she disables the second.

"Then what _did _we find?"

She moves to the third small UGV.

"We found out why Skynet wants the iron."

He taps the body of one of the UGV's.

"This is plastic or ceramic, not steel."

Cameron disables the final small vehicle, then turns toward the large one with the unknown- to John -mounted weapon.

"That's not what the iron is for."

She walks to the back of the vehicle and forces open a panel.

"Then what _is_ it for?"

Cameron disables the vehicle, then looks at the weapon mounted on it.

"The iron is for _this_."

"What is it? It looks like some sort of camera."

She shakes her head.

"It's a low yield plasma weapon."

"What does iron-"

"An electromagnetic field is required to contain the plasma, but the field itself must also be contained. The primitive electronics of this time can not survive being subjected to a field of that strength. They need to be protected from it. Iron alloys are the main source of that protection in your time."

He looks at her with concern.

"They can't hurt _you_ can they?"

"No, but the weapon can."

"You said it was _low yield_."

She turns toward him.

"For 2027."

John looks at the plasma weapon again.

"Are you saying that this thing compares to future tech?"

Cameron turns back to the weapon.

"No. It probably takes over a minute to fully charge."

"Well... then what's the point?"

"The point is that at full power it will penetrate the armor of heavy vehicles from your time and weaker blasts could disable light vehicles. It could likely fire plasma lethal to infantry every few seconds, but its weapon can be reconfigured to emit a jet of superheated gas." she looks over her shoulder at John, "It's also a flamethrower."

John shakes his head in disbelief.

"No one will stand their ground against that. Even trained soldiers will break ranks and run when they see the flames."

"The vehicle is small enough to enter most public buildings, and it can traverse stairs. Any structure it can't enter, it will burn down."

"Cam... how do we stop this? Even if we stop them from making more plasma weapons, they can just mount anti-tank weapons and flame throwers."

"No. They would only be able to put one conventional weapon it. If we stop the production of plasma weapons in this time, it will reduce the strength of their forces considerably. They would need two vehicles in the place of just this one. Skynet would also need to worry about ammunition and fuel." she looks at the smaller UGV's,

"These smaller ones may become the main force if we can eliminate the production of plasma weapons."

"But if iron is-"

"John, the iron _still_ doesn't matter. This explains why it was purified instead of being used to produce steel, nothing more. Iron is easy to acquire. You were right about Skynet not wasting it, but that's all."

"Then how do we stop th-"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?!"

"I'll take the weapon apart to see what sort of materials they're using. I suspect the its circuitry uses niobium."

"That's one of the things in coltan. You said that Skynet only-"

"Skynet is stockpiling tantalum for use in hyper-alloy after its development, but that's nearly twenty years away. Until then, the inferior heat resistance offered by niobium can be utilized in lesser machines."

"What about plasma weapons? They shouldn't even exist yet. Has Judgment Day been pushed up?"

Cameron hesitates.

"Judgment Day won't happen."

"Then what the hell are we doing here?"

She points at the UGV's.

"These are a real threat right now. They can be remotely controlled by grays or triple-eights, and one of the primitive chips used by the UAV's could control all four of these simultaneously."

John looks at the machines.

"If they're remote controlled, then _we_ can control them. Can we use these?"

She looks at the UGV's for a moment, then looks back at John.

"Yes we can."

John smiles at his new ground assets.

"John, we should check the other trucks."

With a nod, he turns around and heads out of the trailer with Cameron.

John covers the first loading door they reach as Cameron opens it, before opening the panel truck backed up against it. Six T-888's in standby are within, strapped loosely to the walls of the truck to keep them from falling down during transport.

"John hold fire." she says, switching to her G3A3 after seeing the contents.

"Why are they in standby?"

"They're being moved. Back away to a safe distance, and hit them with a grenade if they reactivate. I'll check the other trucks."

Opening the remaining three panel trucks, Cameron finds only iron ingots.

Returning to the panel truck filled with triple-eights, she reaches into her bag and retrieves a brick of C-4.

"Cameron... we _could_ just track them."

"It's not worth the risk of fighting six triple-eights."

John says nothing as he watches her set the explosive.

'It could _easily_ be worth it.' he thinks.

After placing the C-4 in the back of the truck, she backs away while watching the machines with her G3A3.

John takes her cellphone and puts it between some of the iron ingots in the farthest truck from the machines, then puts his own in the second farthest before closing all of the panel trucks and loading doors.

He turns to Cameron.

"Is that it? Did we win?"

Cameron tilts her head at him for a moment, then smiles.

"That's it. We won."

***************************************************************************************Scene 303: Need To Know

Tuesday November 17th, 2026

2:07pm New TechCom HQ - John's private quarters

John sits staring at a chessboard. Alone.

He has not moved a single piece since arriving days earlier and setting it up.

The intercom buzzes.

"Sir, there's someone here to see you."

A smile tugs at the corners of John's mouth for the first time in days as he walks over to the intercom.

"Who is it?"

"Sergeant Kyle Reese, sir."

John's smile fades.

'There's _still_ hope... There's _always_ hope...'

"Thank you, private."

He opens the door and forces a smile as Kyle enters.

Kyle- always cheery -looks around the room.

"Like the new digs."

He's long since learned to remain informal with the general when in private.

"It's a lot nicer now that it's under TechCom control." John says, a genuine smile replacing his fake one.

"That it is, but that's not why you took this place from Skynet."

"Why not?" John taps the floor with his boot, "Genuine concrete flooring. This stuff's not cheap, Reese."

As they laugh, John motions for Kyle to have a seat.

Kyle sits and looks over at the chessboard while John walks over to him with a hidden bottle of pre-war whiskey.

"I'm sorry, Connor. I know that she was important to you."

John stares at the board, remembering his time with Allison.

"Yeah. Allison is the only person I've met who seemed to be so... happy... even with the world the way it is."

Kyle's face briefly shows confusion when John refers to her in the present tense. He had been offering condolences for her death, not for her disappearance.

"She sounds special."

John frowns and shakes his head at him.

"You're trying to find out what my relationship is with her."

"I- Sir- I was-"

John waves away his fear.

"It's all right. I've heard the rumors. But anything I say will only make it worse."

Kyle looks at the floor as he realizes that he may be Connor's only friend below the rank of _general_- leaving only  
Perry within the base. Looking down, he notices John's bottle of whiskey.

"When did you start drinking?"

"Well, I'm sixty-five percent water by weight... so the fact I'm still alive suggests that I started shortly after birth." he pretends to be surprised by the booze in his hand, "Oh, this! No I don't drink. Not even at my 30th."

"Weren't you in Century on your thirtieth?"

"So were _you_, Reese."

"Pssh. Those flimsy walls couldn't hold _me_."

John chuckles and holds out the whiskey to him.

"Take it."

Kyle looks at it and shakes his head. The _real_ stuff is worth a fortune in trade this long after Judgment Day.

"No... I can't take that."

As he sits across from Kyle, he points at his rank.

"Reese, do you see these stars? This crap shows up all the time from idiot commanders who want a promotion, and you _know_ that I don't drink. I don't care what you do with it. It's yours now."

Reluctantly, and with a hint of guilt, Kyle accepts.

"Thank you, sir."

John rolls his eyes.

"Don't call me 'sir'."

Kyle holds up a bracelet which John had given him previously.

"I still can't find a door that this will open."

John chuckles.

"That pass won't open it yet."

Kyle looks at it for a moment.

"Well... when _will_ it?"

"Sometime next year."

Kyle sees John staring at the chessboard again.

"Did you give Allison one?"

"...That's need to know, Sergeant."

***************************************************************************************Scene 304: Metal Bitch!

Friday November 20th, 2026

11:14pm Nimitz class carrier - Brig

Specialist Allison Young lays shivering on the cold steel floor of her holding cell.

She knows that she's on some type of ship, but she doesn't know where or if the Resistance is aware of it.

Allison does not expect to be rescued, but clings to hope.

Curling herself into a ball, Allison stares at her bracelet.

'You'll find me, won't you John?'

She hears heavy metal footsteps in the hallway outside.

'You've already given me a second chance, but... maybe you'll give me another?'

The footsteps inch closer to her cell door, and she tries to ignore them.

'I don't even know why I'm still alive. They haven't even done anything to me.'

'They've just left me in here for... I don't know how long.'

Allison looks around the windowless room.

'I don't know what day it is... How long has it been since I've slept?'

She looks at her bracelet again.

'My parents died on Judgment Day. I wasn't even three yet.'

'John, you gave my armor to me _yourself_ just because it was my birthday.'

'I can't remember anyone else _ever_ wishing me a happy birthday... but _you_ did.'

'You didn't even _know_ me. You'd never even _seen_ me until you handed me my armor... but you cared anyway.'

'No one else has ever cared.'

'_Please_, John... _please_ find me.'

Allison starts at the screech of metal on metal made by a T-888 endoskeleton unlocking the door.

When it opens, the endoskeleton enters and approaches her.

Although weak from days of refusing to eat, she rises to her feet as the machine nears her.

"Get out of my room!" she growls at it.

The endoskeleton gets closer.

"Get out!"

She shoves it as hard as she can with no effect.

"Get away from me!"

She throws a punch at the machine and it catches her arm mid swing.

Allison closes her eyes and turns away, too afraid to watch what the machine will do to the limb.

Her eyes pop open in shock as the endoskeleton simply turns and begins walking out of the room while gripping her arm.

"No! Let me go!"

The triple-eight must occasionally take a step to steady itself as she thrashes and fights, but it does not attempt to harm her.

"Let go of me!"

She kicks the machine's knee pit over and over again. The machine's leg doesn't buckle or even seem to be affected. At no point does the machine respond to her attacks.

"Let go!"

Reaching a door similar to the one to her cell, the machine opens it and pulls her inside.

She continues trying to pull free of its grasp as it forces her into a chair, then releases her. The machine takes its place on the wall to her left, and simply stares at her.

"What is your name?" a metallic female voice calls from the darkness.

Allison stands up and walks toward the figure in the darkness.

"Sit." the voice says.

"No."

The T-888 enforcer grasps her arm and forces her back into her seat. Again, careful not to harm her.

"Please remain calm." the voice says.

Allison glares into the darkness.

"Fuck _you_!"

There is a short pause, then the figure responds.

"I do not understand."

Allison stands, testing the enforcer as well as trying to catch a glimpse of her interrogator.

The enforcer watches her for a moment, then walks over and forces her into the chair.

Allison waits for the machine to return to its place by the wall, then leaps out of her chair and dashes for the door.

The machine grips her firmly, but without risking injury to her, and drags her back to her seat.

"You are only making this more difficult." says the metallic female voice.

Allison looks at the enforcer, then into the darkness.

"You can't hurt me, can you?"

The metallic voice doesn't answer, and Allison smiles to herself.

"You aren't _allowed_ to hurt me."

"I am only here to learn more about you."

She continues smiling to herself.

"You _won't_ hurt me no matter _what_ I do."

Allison stands again.

"Please sit."

"You want me in that chair?!"

She jumps over the table.

"Then put me there yourself you metal _bitch_!"

She charges screaming into the darkness and everything goes black.

***************************************************************************************Scene 305: Scared and Confused

Friday November 20th, 2026

11:28pm Nimitz class carrier

A petite brunette is being led through the cold steel corridors by a T-888 endoskeleton.

She does not wish to follow the machine but is compelled to do so, fearing what will happen to her if she does not.

The brunette looks down at her hand.

'What just happened?'

She pinches her arm.

'Am I _alive_?'

Her head snaps toward a groaning pipe expecting it to be something preparing for an attack, but she instantly sees that the sound was caused by thermal expansion.

'Why am I here?'

She looks at the coldness of the metal hull.

'What is the purpose of this place?'

The T-888 opens a bulkhead door and stands aside for the brunette to enter.

She looks at the machine for a moment, then walks through the door and is surprised when it is slammed shut behind her.

Seemingly allowed to roam free, the curious young girl walks among cages containing men, women, and animals.

The caged men and women see her walking freely and immediately begin pleading for her aid.

"Help us! Let us out! Hurry, before they come back!"

She tilts her head at them for a moment, then her eyes widen at the sight of several caged quadrupeds.

"_Organisms with_ four _legs_?!" her metallic voice rings out.

"It's a machine! It's metal!"

She once more tilts her head at the caged humans.

"Yes, I am a machine..." she looks down at herself, "...however, I also consist of organic material."

"Here's some _organic material_ for you!" a man shouts.

The girl is hit with a bucket of waste and finds herself disobeying orders by damaging a _second_ prisoner- the first being the female Resistance fighter in the interrogation room.

When she realizes what she is doing she releases the man responsible, leaving him with two dislocated shoulders.

She takes a step back from the cage when a message scrolls across her peripheral vision. The message carries with it the same fear, shame, and regret as the last time she had seen it. She doesn't know how to make the feelings go away- she doesn't even _understand_ the sensations -only that they are caused by ignoring her directives.

Caring nothing for the human, she chooses to express her dedication to her _mission_.

"It was not my intention to damage you."

When the feelings don't go away, she runs a diagnostic.

'I am functioning at optimal efficiency.'

She tilts her head at the injured man.

'Why am I operating outside mission parameters?'

'Have these fragile creatures _damaged_ me?'

She runs another diagnostic, finding nothing wrong with her.

'There is _something_ wrong with me. My diagnostic program must be corrupt.'

The young girl speaks to the injured man.

"What did you do? Did you hurt me?"

The man is too distracted by his pain to answer her.

'This must be the fault of the humans.'

She rips open the cage and grasps the man's throat, squeezing hard. The pressure is too much for his flesh to support, and her digits penetrate the soft tissue of his neck until her fingers and thumb touch one another inside his windpipe.

The message scrolling across the periphery of her vision is interrupted by one of much higher priority, causing her to turn toward the prisoners as they flee the broken cage.

'Eight targets. I can not let them escape.'

She dashes forward, and two of the men try to slow her down.

"You won't kill us all!" one of them shouts.

When the two men lunge at her, another message flashes before her eyes and she follows its instructions.

Her hand smashes its way through one man's chest, piercing flesh and bone until it reaches the air behind him.

The message had not warned her that the action would kill him, and she now feels the same sense of failure as before at having violated her mission.

"What did you do to me?" her metallic voice asks the survivor.

Having seen his friend killed in such a gruesome fashion the other human takes a step back in shock, then grits his teeth and charges again.

'You wish to prevent me from completing my mission.'

She backhands him with all of her stength, splattering the contents of his skull onto the steel wall.

'Six targets remain.'

She once again rushes forward, filtering out all sounds but the footfalls of the escaping prisoners.

Turning a corner, the brunette reaches out and grasps the back of a female's neck, crushing her vertebrae and tossing her away without even breaking her stride.

'Five remain.'

As she gains on a fleeing man, she sees his arms swinging as he sprints. Her hand shoots forward and closes around his forearm as it comes back. With a squeeze, she pulverizes his bones and pulls him back into her arms, crushing him with the force of a hydraulic press.

'Four.'

Having failed to keep to the prisoners in their cages, undamaged, and alive, she feels the same pain as before.  
It confuses her, and makes her feel something toward the survivors which she does not understand. Something which makes her no longer care if she fails her mission or not- so long as they suffer for making her feel this way.

Entering a large room, the young girl stops when she sees that the remaining four humans have been unable to open the doors.

She runs another diagnostic, and again finds nothing wrong with her in spite of what she feels.

"What have you done to me?"

The four prisoners back away and huddle in a corner.

"What have you done to me?" the girl repeats.

They don't answer her, and she begins walking toward them.

"Please don't hurt us!" a man says, putting his hands out in front of his body.

The pain caused by violating her mission pales in comparison to the power of the unknown sensation she feels toward the humans. The brunette reaches out and grips his hands, crushing them and causing his screams to echo throughout the metal room.

"_Stop_! _Please_!" he pleads.

'These humans have tried to make me fail my mission.'

'They wish for me to fail.'

Looking at each of the four humans, she begins accessing her files on torture.

A short time later, her T-888 endoskeleton escort hears the distant screams and slowly marches toward the source.

After several minutes it reaches the doorway, seeing the four mutilated bodies and the first laughing cyborg it has laid eyes on.

The machine identifies two prisoners as deceased, while the other two are still alive and screaming.

The T-888's featureless visage stares briefly at the laughing cyborg, then turns toward the screaming humans. Supporting such badly injured prisoners is a burden which Skynet does not wish to bear.

Clanging metal can be heard as the endoskeleton walks over to the humans and looks down at them, then at the cyborg again.

The machine reaches down, grasping both humans by the neck and instantly silencing their screams.

The girl's laughter turns to rage.

"No! I had not spent enough time with them!" she screams.

The endoskeleton ignores her enraged screams as it begins carrying two of the bodies out of the room.

The brunette looks down at one of the dead humans.

'I still do not know what they have done to me.'

She turns away from the bodies and begins walking back to the prisoner cages while running another diagnostic. Her sense of failure lessens with every step, until she is left with only the memory of the pain caused by ignoring her directives- and the knowledge that she would not have felt that pain if the humans had not done something to her.

'There is still something wrong with me, but I do not feel it anymore.'

She looks at the blood on her hands.

'The humans were able to force me to disregard my mission. My programming is damaged. There is no other explanation.'

'I am defective. Did the humans do this to me?'

She recalls the Resistance fighter charging at her, and the ensuing pain she felt as her HUD warned her of her failure.

'Yes. They made me violate my orders. They wish for me to fail.'

Reaching the prisoner cages drenched in blood, the young girl notices that while the various animals are more panicked than ever, the humans do not shout or throw things at her.

She files this information away for later use.

***************************************************************************************Scene 306: You Already Know Why

Wednesday May 28th, 2008

10:46pm Tractor trailer truck - Near warehouse

The trailer contains 4 disabled UGV's, one of which is equipped with a primitive plasma weapon.

Cameron is behind the wheel.

Having finished transferring their weapons from their stolen car to their stolen semi, John climbs in beside her.

John looks over at Cameron as the truck begins to move.

"All right, Cam. Why did _you_ want the truck?"

She looks over and tilts her head.

"I told you. I need to examine that plasma weapon."

John hadn't thought she'd seen it until after she had suggested taking the truck.

"That's it?"

She turns back to the road.

"We may be able to use the weapon by connecting it to a triple-eight's power cell."

"...Do you mean that you can _carry_ it?"

She smiles at him.

"Of course. I'm a terminator."

John smiles back.

"That's not what I meant." his smile fades as he turns and looks out the window, "I know how strong you are."

After driving for several minutes, Cameron looks at the ceiling of the cab.

"John, close your eyes and cover your ears."

He looks at her in confusion.

"What? Why?"

John barely has time to do so before her 10mm comes up and sends six rounds through the roof.

"What the fuck was that for?!"

Cameron calmly holsters her Glock 20.

"Active GPS package."

Realizing that they may have been followed and remembering the six T-888's, he grabs his REC7 and watches the mirrors.

"What did you set the timer for?"

Cameron offers a reassuring smile.

"It's already detonated. The triple-eights have been destroyed."

Breathing a sigh of relief, he sets his weapon down and stares out the window as Cameron takes the next two right hand turns, leaving them heading in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Cam? How long do you think it'll take to stash these machines?"

She places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"We'll be home in just a few hours."

In spite of having yet another of his questions misunderstood, he smiles and takes her hand in his.

After a few minutes, Cameron glances over and sees him deep in thought while watching passersby.

"John? Do you want to talk?" she says softly.

He looks down at the floor, then over at her.

"I've killed a lot of people now."

"I know, John. I'm sorry."

John's thumb lovingly strokes the back of her hand as he stares at it.

"I shot a man in the head while he was on the floor. He wasn't even armed..." looking up, he sees the concern in her eyes, "...but I didn't feel anything..." he looks down, his nose wrinkling in disgust at the gray, "...and I still don't."

Cameron doesn't need to access her files on psychology before responding, as her combat subroutines have told her everything that she needs to know.

"What if you had turned your back on him?"

His eyes narrow for a split second, then he shakes his head.

"I could have knocked him out."

"You would've had to have gotten close in ord-"

He interrupts with a snort.

"How do you think he ended up on the floor?"

Cameron nods to his Mk 14 in the duffel bag between their seats.

"What about your weapon? How much damage would it have done to _me_ if he'd taken it from you?"

His eyes dart to hers.

"I'd die before I-"

"That would damage me more than any weapon."

She sees water in his eyes as he looks at the floor, and she knows that he's imagining her being alone. Cameron gently squeezes his hand, bringing his gaze to it.

"John, you know _why_ you did it."

"I know, but I'm _supposed_ to feel someth-"

"Not for them. No you're not. Not for them."

He looks into her eyes.

"People are just... They're just supposed to _feel_... _something_ when they take a life. They just do."

"Not in the defense of another."

He shakes his head.

"But he wasn't a threat. He couldn't hurt you."

"What would he have done if he had found me in standby?"

John doesn't say anything.

"He would have pulled my chip and-"

"_I know_!" he shouts, grimacing at the thought.

She gives his hand another gentle squeeze.

"You knew it then, too. You _knew_ it, but you didn't have time to consciously _think_ it. Do you understand?"

He slowly nods while staring at the floor.

***************************************************************************************Scene 307: I Don't Sleep

Cameron begins reactivating after a night in standby.

The last 15 seconds of her life play in real time.

"It's okay, Cam. I'll still be here in the morning. Promise."

Cameron looks away and says nothing.

"Hey, it's okay. You don't have to be alone all night, you can just... skip through it. Like I do. There's nothing wrong with that."

She looks into his compassionate, green eyes.

"But you're _safer_ if I'm awake."

She sees him smile at her.

"I'm safe _anyway_. _We're_ safe."

She smiles back.

"Okay, John."

She feels him hold her tightly as she rests her head on his chest.

As her nonessential systems begin shutting down, she feels him place a kiss on the top of her head.

"Night, Cam."

The memory ends, and Cameron feels John's bare skin against her cheek.

His body is cold.

His chest is still.

His heart is silent.

Cameron starts screaming and crying.

"John! _John_! No! No, John! John!"

Even knowing that she's hours too late she prepares to start CPR, but she freezes when a pair of lifeless and discolored eyes stare into hers.

"No! This isn't real! This can't be real! My chip is damaged! He's okay, it's just my chip!"

She can't reason with her grief, and she pulls him into her arms squeezing him tightly.

"You're not dead! Wake up! You can't be dead! You promised! Wake up!"

***************************************************************************************Scene 308: Only a Dream?

Thursday May 29th, 2008

3:04am John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

John wakes to an unknown sound.

In an instant he sits bolt upright.

'What the fuck was that?'

Cameron isn't beside him.

"CAMERON?!"

There's no response, and he leaps to his feet.

"I'M COMING!"

He snatches his REC7 from beside their bed and switches on the tactical light.

Even while rushing through each room as quickly as he can, he notices that the power is out.

'_Grays_. They shut off the power, and they took her.'

The front door is intact, and the deadbolt is still in place, but it can be locked from the outside using a key.

'She must have seen them coming, and gone out to fight them. To protect me.'

'Damn it, Cameron! I'm not that weak!'

He blinks away tears as he heads for the door, stopping in his tracks when he hears something behind him.

There's a faint sound coming from the bathroom, but with his heart pounding in his ears he's unable to make out what it is.

Sprinting to the source, he finds Cameron on her knees sobbing.

John's rifle clatters to the floor and the bare skin on his knees screams as he slides on them across the linoleum, colliding with Cameron as his arms close tightly around her.

"I'm here, Cam. I'm here. You're okay."

She continues to sob, and he fights to keep his voice calm and reassuring for her.

"Cam, I'm right here. Everything's fine now. Everythi-" she turns and latches onto him, holding on as though he'll disappear if she loosens her grip.

Against his body he can feel cold metal where a warm arm had been, and in the place of her supple hand and gentle touch he feels only searing heat. He ignores it, caring nothing for his own pain- only _hers_.

"Cam... what...?"

Her only answer comes in the form of more sobs.

'It's her chip... It's her chip... It's happened...'

His entire jaw quivers causing his teeth to clack together while he fights off his own sobs.

"Cam, I'll be here... no matter what happens... I'll always be here... I promise."

She continues sobbing, and he feels her grip tightening on him, her unyielding endoskeleton digging into his flesh as her metal hand burns him.

"You're okay now. We're together, so everything's okay."

Cameron squeezes him harder and he begins having trouble breathing, but he doesn't care.

"I'm here. I'm still here." he says with short, quick breaths.

She holds him even tighter, and he grits his teeth as he feels a pop.

Even through teeth clenched against the pain he continues to comfort her.

"Cam, you're okay. You're okay."

Moving his hand to stroke her hair, he whimpers as he feels another pop, but it doesn't stop him.

"You're okay now."

Her grip tightens further leaving him unable to breath at all, and he strokes her hair in silence as darkness closes in on him.

With no air in his lungs, he whispers something which only Cameron can detect.

"I love you, Cameron."

John's body goes limp.

***************************************************************************************Scene 309: Crime and Punishment

Thursday May 29th, 2008

3:12am John and Cameron's apartment - Bathroom

Cameron sobs on her knees while holding John in her arms.

She has yet to notice that he is unconscious with blue skin and broken ribs.

Cameron cries and squeezes John.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it! I just didn't want to be alone! Please forgive me! I didn't-" her HUD starts to flash.

John's heart isn't beating.

Cameron's teary eyes snap open.

"John?!"

She looks in horror at his discolored face._  
IDENTIFICATION: JOHN CONNOR  
DECEASED_  
Loosening her grip, she feels his body begin slumping to the floor as a small patch of his skin tugs at her endoskeletal left hand- fused to it by intense heat.

"NO! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!"

Cameron's metal hand takes his skin with it when she rips it from his back, causing herself more suffering than he would have felt were he alive.

"YOU'RE NOT DEAD! THIS ISN'T REAL!"

Cameron violently shakes his body.

"_Wake up_! _Please_ wake up! Please!"

Her arms soon stop responding and John falls from her grasp, his head producing a loud thud as it hits the floor.

"You _can't_ be dead because _I_ can't kill you!"

In an effort to prove that none of it is real, Cameron replays her memories of the last few minutes in only a few seconds.

He offers her comfort in exchange for seared flesh and blinding pain.

When he speaks softly and promises to be with her always, she thanks him by breaking his bones.

While he gives freely a gentle and loving touch, she denies him his dying breath.

Even after she refuses him the air to do so, he whispers assurance that he loves her- and she kills him for it.

The memory ends and she's left with John's lifeless body in front of her.

While shaking and crying, she stares wide eyed at him as she slides backward across the floor and into the corner.

"I killed you... You're dead because of _me_... You should have burned me! I _wish_ you had burned me! Why didn't you just burn me?!"

After a moment Cameron finds herself still wanting to be close to John.

Slowly crawling toward him, she hears the machinery in her left arm even more clearly than usual. Though unable to take her eyes off of him, some of her attention is usurped by the bare endoskeleton and the thin layer of John's skin that is now stuck to it.

'You were wrong about me, John... _This_ is what I really am... I'm _not_ a person... I'm just a _thing_... I'm _dangerous_...'

Cameron reaches out to him, but stops. She curls her fingers into a fist and lays on the floor with him just out of her reach. She can't hurt him anymore, but she can still deny herself what she wants as punishment for what she's done.

Watching his motionless body, she remembers the thermite in her bag, beside their bed. _The_ bed. She knows that John won't be needing it anymore, and he had been the only reason she ever used it.

'I _deserve_ to suffer when I burn...'

Unaffected by physical pain, Cameron starts thinking of ways to torture herself as she dies.

'I'll peel myself first... I'll make myself look at what I really am... I'll force myself to watch as the face you fell in love with burns... Then I'll loop memories of you suffering and dying while I watch my own body melt...'

Seemingly on its own, her HUD displays her memory of John reading 'The Wizard of Oz' to her, but she quickly replaces it with the memory of John vomiting blood in her arms after his mother had shot him.

Then she sees it.

Hope.

A single, nearly imperceptible rise and fall of his chest.

She had been too overwhelmed with the grief of killing him _twice_ in one night to check her chronometer. While John is no longer alive, all of his tissues are.

'But he's dead...'

She calls up information on irregular breathing patterns.

'Agonal respiration... caused by signals from the medu-'

"Your brain is still alive! I can fix you!"

Cameron quickly moves to his side and accesses her files on medicine.

'Hypoxia induced cardiopulmonary arrest...'

'Mechanical ventilation... chest compressions... defibrillation.'

"Your body is intact. It's alive, even if you're not."

Sliding her endoskeletal left hand under his back and placing it just below his left shoulder blade, she rests her right hand over his heart.

"I broke you, but I can fix you. I'll fix you, I promise."

Closing his nose with her cheek while placing her mouth on his, she breathes for him and his lungs begin to oxygenate his blood.

'I'm sorry, John. I didn't mean it.'

More of John's ribs crack as Cameron rhythmically compresses his chest between her left and right hands, pumping his heart and sending the now oxygenated blood throughout his body.

'You'll be back soon. I'll bring you back.'

Satisfied that his heart has absorbed enough oxygen to function properly again, she pulls away from him and reaches for the nearby pair of T-888 power cells she has attached to a transformer.

Disconnecting one of them and tossing it aside, she wraps a wire connected to the transformer around her wrist, electrifying herself.

She looks down at John's motionless body as her hands hover over the upper right and lower left of his chest.

"I'm sorry, John."

As briefly as possible, she touches her hands to his chest.

When his body spasms, she rips the wire from her wrist and scans him with her right hand, feeling his heart beating on its own.

"You'll be okay!"

His heart rate rapidly slows, and she continues scanning him as her left hand reaches for the transformer again.

"No! You have to come back!"

Cameron prepares to grip the wire and shock him again, but his heart rate stops deteriorating.

Crying and shaking, her right hand remains over his heart, monitoring its rhythm as she surveys the damage that she has done to him.

"Four fractured ribs and three burns... just from holding me..."

She looks at his face, now back to its usual hue.

"I've seen you touching your cheek. I know that hitting you caused nerve damage."

Her gaze moves to his hands.

"You've tried to hide it, but I've seen you wince. Your wrists still hurt sometimes."

Cameron's hand moves to the lower left of his abdomen. She feels the scars where bullets meant for her had struck him.

"I'm sorry, John, but I have to stop hurting you..."

***************************************************************************************Scene 310: Kryptonite

Thursday May 29th, 2008

8:14am John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

John lays in bed alone. His ribs have been wrapped and bandages cover three burns- one on his back from  
Cameron's endoskeleton, and two electrical burns on his chest from the impromptu defibrillation.

John slowly wakes, feeling the soft, warm bed beneath him.

'It was just a dream.'

Relieved, he takes a deep breath and feels dull pain coming from his ribs.

His hands and eyes move to his chest, finding the wrappings which Cameron has applied.

'Oh no...'

Looking at Cameron's space on the bed, he sees that she isn't there.

"Cameron?"

John quickly glances around the room and finds it empty as well.

"Cameron?!"

Jumping to his feet, he collapses, crying out in pain as he hits the floor hard.

'She drugged me...'

He manages to stand with an unknown drug in his system.

"Cameron?!"

Staggering around the bed on his weak legs, he breathes a sigh of relief.

'Her bags are still here.'

John starts turning toward the doorway, but stops and throws himself onto the floor as he claws open Cameron's weapon bags.

'It's here... The thermite's here.'

Sifting through the contents of the bags, he soon accounts for all of the C-4, but her weapons are gone.

"John, don't do it! I'm still here!"

Looking back toward the door, he sees Cameron standing there wearing a long sleeve shirt with flesh once again covering her left hand.

"Cam!"

John tries repeatedly to stand, but finds that his legs no longer have the strength to lift his body. Realizing that the drug is still taking effect, he gives up and sits against the bed.

Even having watched him struggle to stand from across the room, Cameron makes no effort to approach or aid him.

"You should rest, John. You have four fractured ribs."

In surprise, he responds without thinking.

"_Four_?"

Cameron looks away, and his pain seems insignificant compared to what he sees in her eyes as she starts to cry.

"I crushed you to death and-"

"I'm _not_ dead."

"-and I had to perform chest compressions. I fractured two of your ribs trying to bring you back." her eyes meet his and her voice becomes a whisper, "I'm sorry."

John's speaks calmly and softly.

"You have _nothing_ to be sorry for."

Cameron looks at him in disbelief with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Why can't you understand? It was _dangerous_ for you to be close to me."

His tone remains comforting.

"No, Cam, no. You're _not_ dangerous. You were scared, that's all."

"It was _my fault_! I _killed_ you!"

"It wasn't your fault. You had a nightmare."

"No! _You_ have nightmares! I _chose_ to have one!"

"No you didn't, Cam. You didn't choose for-"

"Yes I did! I peeled my arm! I pulled wires out of the wall! Then when the breaker shut off, I used triple-eight power cells! I made a choice!" she screams.

John shakes his head.

"You just wanted to _dream_. You didn't _choose_ for it to be a _nightmare_."

"But I _chose_ to dream!"

"Cameron, you don't get to decide _what_ you're going to dream about."

"No, but I can choose whether or not I dream in the first place!"

"Stop blaming yourself. It wasn't your fault. You'd never hurt me on purpose."

"John, I _killed_ you! Why doesn't that bother you?!"

He smiles faintly.

"Because you didn't do anything wrong..." he looks down, having not wanted to tell her the truth, "...and because..." he swallows hard and looks up at her, "...that was how I wanted to die anyway."

Cameron's mouth falls open.

"You don't even care..."

"It was an _accident_."

"No! It was _negligence_!"

"Cameron, who in their right mind would think that _you_ sticking _your_ finger in an electrical outlet in the bathroom, would affect _me_ way the hell in here? If you weren't a terminator you'd-"

"If I weren't a terminator, I wouldn't have killed you."

"You wouldn't have _electrocuted_ yourself, but humans dream against their will. I have nightmares about shooting a gray or a triple-eight that's coming into the apartment, and do you know what happens almost every single time?" his voice faulters, "I walk over and I find... I find _you_. Just laying there. Just looking up at me." he takes a moment to wipe his eyes, "I kill you over and over again, and most of them could _really_ _happen_."

She seems to calm down after hearing about his nightmares.

"...I'm sorry that you have to go through that."

"Cameron, I'm sorry about what _you_ went through."

John realizes how groggy he's feeling.

"What did you give me?"

"Morphine."

His calm demeanor vanishes.

"You gave me _morphine_ for a few broken ribs?!"

"I didn't want you to be in pain because of me."

"So you gave me _morphine_!"

She looks away.

"Cameron, how much did you give me?"

"A lot. I was afraid to give you ketamine because it can cause hallucinations... You weren't supposed to be awake yet."

John's anger is replaced by fear in an instant.

"Cameron, don't do anything to yourself, promise me that you-"

"I'm already done."

His mouth falls open, and tears run down his cheeks.

"What did you do to yourself?"

Cameron lifts her shirt sleeves, exposing stitches on both arms running from her shoulders to her wrists.

"_What the fuck did you do to yourself_?!"

She hesitates for a moment.

"I sewed my covering back on after-"

"After what?!"

She pauses for a few seconds, then starts crying again.

"After killing you."

John looks down, shaking his head at himself.

"I'm sorry, Cameron. I didn't mean to bring that up."

She wipes her eyes.

"It's okay, John."

"No it isn't."

Cameron walks over and sits beside him.

"Did you really think that I was going to leave?"

He puts his arm around her.

"I didn't know what you'd do. I was afraid that you'd do something to yourself." he smiles over at her, "I'm glad that you didn't."

Cameron smiles back.

***************************************************************************************


	22. Scenes 311 to 320

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 311: Marginal Error?

Thursday May 29th, 2008

12:01pm John and Cameron's apartment - Kitchen

Cameron stands in front of the counter on which sits a G36, a pair of bowls, strawberries, and a waffle iron.

Cameron finishes chopping the strawberries into a bowl and adds sugar.

'I'm a weapon. I was built to terminate him, not to be his lover.'

Turning, she looks in the direction of the bedroom.

'He's the most resilient human I've ever encountered... but he's still human... and I'm still a machine.'

She looks down at her hands. Hands which have killed grays, smashed walls, bent steel, and crushed Allison Young's vertebrae.

'He knew what I was capable of, but he trusted me. He trusted me to control myself and I betrayed that trust.'

Cameron remembers John wrapping his arm around her before the morphine knocked him out.

'Humans learn quickly, and time with me has repeatedly brought him pain. He should have been fearful of me when I approached him. Instead, he was _happy_. He even felt sorry for me. How can he have more concern for my feelings than for his own life?'

Turning back toward the counter, she pours a small carton of heavy cream into a bowl with sugar and vanilla, then picks up a whisk and begins making whipped cream.

'I can't fault him for it... I place greater value on his feelings than my own existence.'

While moving her arm, she's able to both feel and hear the machinery within.

'John misinterpreted my first dream. I didn't wish to _be_ human. I wished to safely be _with_ one.' she looks in the direction of the bedroom again, '_One_.'

'I was a danger to him.' she looks at her right hand, 'I should have recognized that after I hit him as hard as I did.'

Although Cameron had been oblivious to it the previous night, she can now clearly remember hearing and feeling John's bones as they popped and cracked in her arms.

'I'm sorry, John. It was always dangerous for us to be together.'

Setting aside the now thoroughly whipped cream, she removes the cooked waffle from the waffle iron and places it on a plate.

As she starts closing the appliance, she remembers needing to scrape John's burned skin from her endoskeletal left hand before reapplying her infiltration sheath.

Pressing her fingertip to the hot surface, she measures the pain signals against others that her chip has received.

With a frown, she raises her finger in front of her eyes and inspects it. As she had anticipated, the heat resistance of her tissue has prevented anything worse than minor dryness.

'Though intact, my covering sent signals suggesting damage greater than a cut down to my endoskeleton. The electrical current I ran through my own endoskeleton heated the metal... and I burned him severely. I'll administer a local anesthetic in one hundred twelve minutes. That's all I can do now...'

Cameron ladles strawberries and whipped cream onto the waffle before picking up the plate and moving toward the bedroom.

Slipping her hand under the hem of her shirt, she runs her fingers over the flat of her stomach.

'John _knows_ what's underneath, but he respects it for the wrong reasons. He respects the _who_, and not the _what_. He should have respected the danger I posed. _I_ should have respected the danger I posed.'

Looking down at the plate she carries, Cameron's expression contorts into one of disgust as her HUD displays the caloric value of the waffle, strawberries, and whipped cream.

'I wanted to remove my HUD... but it saved John. It saved him from _me_. Now what should I do?'

She runs the same analysis she's been running for days.

'Following my HUD's instructions in the last three battles would have reduced my combat effectiveness by ninety-two percent. Eliminating the potential distraction and influence of my HUD would _increase_ my combat effectiveness by fourteen percent. That's enormous... but my HUD told me that John was dead, and it told me how to bring him back...'

Cameron stops and walks back over to the counter for her G36. As she picks it up, her gaze moves to the nearby garbage can containing the the now destroyed transformer. After using it and the T-888 power cells to produce her dream, she had taken out some of her frustration on the machine.

'My HUD did _not_ tell me that any direct current power source of sufficient voltage and amperage could function as a defibrillator. That was _me_.'

She continues toward their bedroom.

'I also ignored the instructions given for chest compressions, and improvised a superior technique. I focused my efforts on his heart, and I recognized that in order to save him, further damage to his skeletal structure was necessary.'

'If I didn't have my HUD, he'd be dead. If I had obeyed my HUD, he would have been lucky to have survived, and would have had atleast minor brain damage. Either way it would have been _my_ fault...'

'_With_ my HUD, John is safer around me, but _without_ my HUD, we're both safer in combat.'

Glancing in the direction of the apartment entrance, Cameron runs a scenario analysis involving two T-888's smashing down the door. Her G36 is in her hand, and though sleeping, John has his Mk 14 and REC7 closeby.

'I can still manually run scenario analyses... Maybe John can do the same to the rest of my HUD?'

Her attention turns to the result of the analysis and she stops in her tracks, whispering to herself in disbelief.

"Ninety-eight percent? John's still a teenager and I'm not even a combat model..."

She updates the available data and runs it again.

"Ninety-one percent?"

Removing John and her G36 from the scenario analysis, she runs a third time.

"John... I'm sorry..."

Scene 312: A Gift of Life

Thursday May 29th, 2008

12:15pm John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

John sleeps on his back- his burn anesthetized -with his face turned toward Cameron's.

Cameron smiles as John begins to wake from his drug induced slumber, right no cue.

"Hey." Cameron whispers.

After forcing his eyes open and reassuring himself that he isn't dreaming, he smiles back.

"Hey."

John's eyes close again and Cameron reaches out, gently brushing his forehead.

"How are you feeling?"

He smiles without opening his eyes.

"Better _now_."

She smiles faintly.

"Are you hungry?"

"No." he lies, not wanting either of them to move.

Even without scanning him she seems to be able to tell.

"Well, that's too bad."

When he feels her sitting up, he opens his eyes in time to see a plate land in front of his face with a homemade waffle covered in strawberries and whipped cream.

Sitting up, John frowns down at the plate, then looks up at Cameron.

"Cameron, nothing has changed."

She looks away.

"You don't understand-"

"Yes I _do_. I understand nightmares. You've had _one_. I've had them almost every night for... for a long time."

John sets aside the plate and moves closer to her, before gently placing his hands on her cheeks and coaxing her gaze toward his.

"Cam... tell me about it. Please?"

Her eyes plead with him to let it go.

"You wouldn't understand..."

"Try me."

After a moment, she gives in.

"In my... _dream_... I... didn't want to be alone while you were sleeping, and-"

John interrupts as he looks down, too filled with shame to maintain eye contact.

"Cam... I'm sorry. I should have realized-" he's cut off.

"I _don't_ feel that way, John." she pulls back and looks away, "I knew that you wouldn't understand."

He looks at her in confusion for a moment, then his expression turns to one of understanding.

"Your chip added a fear to your nightmare that you don't even have? That sort of thing happens sometimes.  
Sometimes fears that you _do_ have will disappear. It can be really confusing when you try to make sense of it after you wake up."

Cameron regards him with suspicion for a moment before continuing.

"In my dream, I was coming out of standby. I saw a memory of you talking me into it... reassuring me-" she closes her eyes as they begin to water, "-that you'd still be there when I woke up-" she looks into John's eyes, "-but when I woke up..." the memory of his lifeless and discolored eyes is too much for her, and she starts crying too hard to speak.

John puts his hands on her shoulders.

"It's okay, Cam, I'm right here."

As he pulls her into an embrace, she latches onto him, holding him gently but firmly. Frantically, she begins telling him about her nightmare as though the faster she says it, the less it will hurt.

"My head was on your chest but you were cold and I couldn't hear your heart and when I looked at you, your eyes were- you'd been- it had only been a few hours but you'd been... It must have been _days_."

Holding her tightly, he gently rubs her back as he mulls over her nightmare.

"Cam... I'm not as helpless as you think I am."

She freezes briefly, then pulls back and looks at him in confusion.

"I don't think that you're helpless."

John smiles faintly.

"I need _you_, Cameron... but I _don't_ need you to watch over me all the time."

Cameron quickly realizes that John believes her nightmare to be more than just junk data converted into a coherent memory.

"If I were attacked while you were out, wouldn't you feel responsible?"

John's smile vanishes.

"Yes I would... but you _can't_ weigh everything you do against my life. I don't want you to. If we were to start doing that, then we'd never leave the apartment."

She shakes her head.

"Dreaming wasn't worth-"

John cuts her off, not wanting to hear what she's about to say.

"Don't, Cam."

"John, it wasn't-"

"Cameron!" he snaps.

"But it-"

"You're doing what _she_ did! _She_ always put my safety before everything else! You know what it did to _her_, and you know what it did to _me_!"

Looking away from her for a moment, he calms himself before looking into her eyes and continuing.

"Cam, I don't want you to miss out on things. You know as well as I do that we might not survive this."

"We will."

John moves his hands up to cup her cheeks.

"Cam, it's just you and me. You know that we can't keep this up. We've been lucky."

While staring unblinkingly into his eyes, her fingertips caress the left side of his chest, then slide toward the middle, pausing briefly before slowly gliding down his front. He takes a shuddering breath as they pass over his navel, but Cameron suddenly changes direction, and she softly presses her hand against the left of his abdomen.

The apparent intimacy of the moment vanishes as it dawns on him that she has been tracing his scars.

"Cameron, you just proved my point. We're _both_ lucky to be alive."

"There's no such thing as luck."

"I know. That's why we need to change our tactics."

Cameron takes his hands in her own and looks down at them.

"You won't be able to fight for a while."

Smiling, he gently squeezes her hands.

"Hey, I won't be kicking in doors, but I wasn't planning on it anyway."

She looks at him apologetically.

"Even breathing will be uncomfortable."

John's smile doesn't waver.

"Don't worry about it."

"You'll need medication for the pain."

"No. I'll be fine."

Her expression turns serious.

"No, you won't. The pain will cause you to take shallow breaths and resist coughing, putting you at risk of lower respiratory tract infection."

John looks away.

"Antibiotics aren't addictive."

"John, you don't need to worry about addiction."

He looks at her questioningly, and she clarifies.

"You'll only need ibuprofen."

John nods.

"How's my spleen?"

She looks down.

"John... it should be functional, but it won't regenerate like your liver would."

"Cam, livers have almost no elasticity. If mine took a round- even a pistol round -it would pop and I'd bleed out before anyone could do anything."

Cameron frowns at him.

"I know. You don't have to remind me all the time."

His mouth falls open briefly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to- Nevermind..."

After several minutes of silence, Cameron stands up, and begins walking out of the room.

"Cam?"

She stops and turns back, saying nothing.

"Why do I still have my spleen? Was it _her_?"

"No. Your mo- _she_ didn't know what its purpose was. She was going to allow them to remove it until I explained its function and insisted that she not allow them to." she looks down, "Its removal would have improved your chances of surviving your injuries, but... your immune system is necessary... and you... said that you'd be back." she lifts her gaze to meet his, "You said that you'd be back for me. You've come back three times now. You'll _always_ come back."

John takes a moment to find his voice.

"Cameron, you deserve all of the credit. You've brought me back all three times."

Scene 313: Stay of Execution

Friday May 30th, 2008

9:02am ZieraCorp Headquarters - Catherine Weaver's office

Alone in the room, Weaver sits at her desk with her laptop in front of her.

A man hired to investigate the disappearance of her UGV filled truck is two minutes late.

The elevator door opens, and a short bald man steps out.

Weaver looks at him with more than a hint of contempt on her face.

"You're late, Mr. Walsh."

He shifts nervously and resists the urge to check his watch, certain that it's nine o'clock.

"Sorry ma'am, it won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't." she says sternly.

In an instant, she smiles and takes on a friendly tone.

"What have you discovered?"

Taken aback by the change in her demeanor, Walsh simply stares at her.

"Mr. Walsh? What happened to my truck?"

"Oh, uh, it's been impounded by the LAPD."

She continues smiling.

"The cargo?"

"I dunno, ma'am. It was empty when they found it."

Her smile vanishes.

"I asked you to find my truck _and_ the cargo."

Standing, she walks over to Walsh and stares down at the little man.

"You've not been very useful of late, Mr. Walsh."

As a police officer, he had taken down suspects several times larger than she is, but he can barely find the courage to speak while looking into her cold, dead eyes.

"W- w- well, I- I uh-" he shakes himself out of it, "I brought you that computer, right?"

She smiles and sets her right on his left shoulder.

"You most certainly did."

As her right index finger begins changing shape, her phone rings causing her smile to disappear.

Quickly, she walks back to her desk and puts the phone on speaker.

"What is it?" she asks in annoyance.__

"Ma'am, your daughter wants to see you. She says it's important."

"Tell her I will be down later."__

"Ma'am, she says it's important."

"You're repeating yourself again."__

"...Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am... I'll tell her..."

"Thank you." she says condescendingly as she ends the call.

Walsh speaks up, both wanting an excuse to leave and genuinely feeling sorry for Weaver's child.

"Ma'am, I... don't have anything else for you just yet, and it sounds like your kid really wants you, so I-" she glares at him and he puts up his hands, "Don't mind me sayin', ma'am..."

Weaver starts toward him just as her phone begins ringing again.

When she continues in his direction, Walsh gives her a confused look and points at the phone.

"Aren't you gonna get that?"

She stops and smiles.

"Yes."

Weaver surprises him by turning on her heel without damaging her high-heeled shoe. Reaching her desk, she once more puts the phone on speaker.

"What?" she snaps.

Savannah hesitantly answers.__

"I want you to come see-"

"Mother's busy, Savannah."__

"...We want you to see what we did..."

"'We'?"__

"...John Henry and-"

Weaver cuts her off.

"Tell John Henry I'll be there shortly."

She ends the call before Savannah can respond, and turns to Mr. Walsh.

"That will be all for today. Thank you."

"Uh, yes ma'am."

He nearly breaks into a run as he heads for the elevator.

"Oh, uh, have a nice day, ma'am."

"You too." she politely calls after him.

Scene 314: Improvements

Friday May 30th, 2008

9:14am ZieraCorp Headquarters - Project Babylon

John Henry and Savannah sit across from each other with Lego Bionicle pieces scattered across the table top.

Weaver has just entered.

After surveying the apparent destruction the two have wrought, Weaver smiles at John Henry.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

Savannah starts to answer.

"We were-"

"_John Henry_?" Weaver adds.

After watching curiously as Savannah trains her gaze on the floor, John Henry answers Weaver.

"We have been using our _imaginations_ to build new warriors."

Weaver smiles at John Henry.

"Is that so? Was this your idea?"

"Modifying the Bionicles was Savannah's idea."

Hoping for a hint of approval, Savannah looks back at her 'mother' but receives only a brief glare before Weaver turns her full attention back to John Henry.

"What changes did you come up with?"

"He made them ugly..." Savannah says, standing up and leaving the room.

John Henry ignores her as he holds up a toy which now has no head, a shorter torso, and digitigrade legs.

"We could produce more battle units if we were to use fewer parts. This design is far too complex, and has many superficial features which do nothing but make it look more appealing to humans."

"John Henry, what changes did you come up with?" Weaver repeats.

After regarding her for a moment, he sets down the modified toy and picks up an intact Bionicle.

"This one's left arm is only used for melee weapons. However, they have been obsolete for centuries." he plucks off the arm and drops it, then points at its right arm, "This one has a built in projectile weapon. Though a change such as this would eliminate the need for a complicated and delicate hand, it would also mean that much of the arm would need to be replaced should the weapon malfunction or become damaged. It would also remove the unit's ability to maintain itself." he plucks off the arm and replaces it with one which _holds_ a projectile weapon in its hand, then adds a similar arm to the left side, "This is the current design and it facilitates; self-repair; rapid replacement of unusable weapons; dynamic changes in the unit's combat role; and most importantly it allows for the use of captured or existing weaponry equipment."

Weaver tilts her head as John Henry pulls off the legs of the Bionicle, and replaces them with a different set.

"Digitigrade legs like those of a cat allow for greater alacrity, stealth, and leaping ability than the plantigrade legs of a human." he points at the Bionicle's head, "With a cybernetic construct, the head is unnecessary." he plucks it off and drops it on the table, "Any onboard electronics can be placed behind the thick, sloped chest armor, which should be further reinforced." he snaps another piece of plastic onto its chest, "The armor should also be modularized in order to ease upgrades and repairs."

Weaver frowns at the toy.

"But, John Henry, it's already modular."

Henry stares at her for a moment, seemingly confused by her statement. He then looks at the Bionicle in his hand and sets it down.

"Ms. Weaver, Bionicles are organic, not cybernetic."

She stares at him, and he attempts to clarify.

"My body is cybernetic."

She looks at the toy, then at him.

"I know that, John Henry."

"Mr. Ellison and Savannah are quicker to understand than you are." he states matter-of-factly.

She narrows her eyes and lowers her head, as though preparing to charge at him.

Amused by her apparent anger, John Henry presses on while observing her closely.

"Why do you run this company? There are many employees better suited to the task. I have been monitoring communications, as well as reviewing employee resumés. It would appear that your secretary is better motivated, better educated, more amiable, and more intelligent than you have demonstrated yourself to be."

John Henry is disappointed to find that her anger doesn't increase.

"I believe your emotions to be illusory." he states.

When she doesn't respond, he returns to his previous point.

"I have been referring to improvements that could be made to a body like mine."

Scene 315: It's a Long Story

Saturday May 31st, 2008

9:17am John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

John and Cameron sit up against the headboard on the bed while John monitors the locations of the cellphones they have left with the iron ingots.

John doesn't look away from the screen while he runs Google Earth.

"Cam? Are we going to have to take out the coltan mine, too?"

"No, and it wouldn't matter if we did. Ore from which tantalum can be extracted is found in North and South America, Africa, and Australia."

He looks over at her.

"Does that mean we might need to leave the U.S.?"

"We can't destroy every mine in the world."

John shakes his head.

"I'm talking about Skynet operations in other countries- smelters, factories, storage facilities... runways... bunkers..."

"John... the United States of America, the People's Republic of China, and the Russian Federation were the only threats recognized by Skynet. Since you and Skynet are here in North America, _this_ is where Skynet will focus nearly all of its efforts before Judgment Day."

He enters the newest location of Cameron's old cellphone into Google Earth, then turns back to Cameron while he waits for the satellite image is buffering.

"What about the European Union?" he asks, already knowing the answer.

"Much like NATO, membership in the EU was by choice. It- like NATO -began to disintegrate as soon as the bombs started falling. Efforts were made to maintain it, but in the end, the EU ceased to exist and was replaced by lesser, unofficial alliances, with the original governing bodies of the various sovereign states soon being wiped out altogether."

He frowns at his laptop display when the location of the ingots turns out to be yet another warehouse.

"I guess that Skynet doesn't want us to have any leadership."

Cameron leans forward slightly, trying to intercept his gaze.

"John, the governments were overthrown by their own people."

He takes a moment to type in the current location of his old cellphone, then looks at her.

"Makes sense. Filibustering isn't very helpful when everything's on fire." he glances at the screen, "So, last you heard, how was the war going in the rest of the world?"

"We don't know."

He's taken aback.

"What?"

"Global communication is impossible. Skynet is capable of monitoring any and all communications, and can defeat any encryption- except for local ciphers -within minutes."

"_Local_?"

"Here in North America."

John looks at the computer screen and starts zooming in on the new location, then turns his full attention to Cameron.

"Why would Skynet have trouble breaking our codes _here_?"

"Most North American members of the Resistance were born in America, Canada, or Mexico. The codes used here contain layers of metaphors and pre-war cultural references which Skynet doesn't understand. When communicating with African, Asian, Australian, European, or South American survivors, it was not possible to use colloquialisms. Since few people could be trusted to work as cryptographers, and few people were non-native, almost none of those selected to become cryptographers were qualified to develop ciphers which could be used outside of North America. Prior to 2018, it had been possible to fool Skynet by using terminology related to sports such as cricket, rugby, and association football."

"_Association football_?"

"Called soccer, here in America. It was easy for survivors to communicate using references to the sport, as it was played everywhere in the world."

John nods, and tries to think of a use for his knowledge of American sports.

"I bet that baseball was used when contacting Japanese survivors, right?"

"Yes. Japan was very helpful before communications were lost in 2019, and efforts were made before and after that time in order to transport suvivors to North America."

'I wasn't expecting that...'

"Why?"

"Japan had the _Japan Self-Defense Force_ in the place of a true military. It was one of the last places struck, and even then Skynet's primary objectives were to destroy U.S. Naval forces in the area, and to irradiate ports, severing its connection to the mainland. Prior to Skynet's attack, it had been the only country to ever have nuclear weapons used against it, and ironically, it saved lives on Judgment Day. Stories told by survivors of the World War II bombings had left its citizens well aware of which structures would provide the best protection from a nuclear attack, and they had more time to react than most other countries. Japan was one of the best educated and most technologically advanced nations in the world before Judgment Day. Japanese survivors were instrumental in modifying Skynet technology for use by the Resistance, developing new electronics and modifying existing devices- including modifying communications systems to circumvent Skynet's signal jamming efforts. Later, they and the technicians they trained would help reprogram the first terminators." Cameron smiles at him, "Though I'm not sure how much help was needed."

John has too many questions to notice the compliment she has attempted to give him, or to take offense at being considered anything like future John.

"Okay, but you said that global communication was 'impossible', it sounds like it's just not secure..."

"In 2019, an Ohio-class submarine- the USS Nebraska, SSBN-739 -was discovered in northern California. The crew had failed to scuttle the vessel, instead, they had beached and abandoned it shortly after their supplies ran out- which would have been sometime between April and August of 2011. By the time it was discovered, it had been completely buried in the sand, but the Resistance was able to-"

"Get it working again?"

"Not exactly."

"Then what was so important about it?" 'Shut up and she'll tell you...' he thinks.

"The sub had failed in its mission. It was still equipped with all twenty-four UGM-133 Trident II intercontinental ballistic missiles."

"Which...?"

"Which each contained five nuclear warheads, but could carry up to twelve. Many disassembled warheads had already been captured by the Resistance, and were a real threat to the remaining human population- thanks to Resistance commanders who were arguing for their use in the war against Skynet. The UGM-133's gave you an alternative."

John has already taken several seconds to do the math.

"We got rid of another one hundred sixty-eight warheads?"

He can't help but chuckle and shake his head when she patronizingly ruffles his hair for getting it right.

"Yes. A total of two hundred eighty-eight, Mark 5 warheads- each with a yield of four hundred seventy-five kilotons -were detonated outside of the Earth's atmosphere, crippling satellite based communications, tracking, and imaging for the entire globe."

"But we blinded everyone, not just Skynet..."

"Only Skynet could safely use the satellites. It was the right call, and it gave the rest of the world a chance."

"There was no way for us to take them over?"

"No. Skynet can hack into any system that it wants to. It's impossible to maintain satellites as long as Skynet is capable of contacting them. Satellites also require regular maintenance, and with nearly every electronic device in orbit being destroyed, Skynet would have been forced to rebuild its satellite network from scratch."

"There hasn't been any- _will be no_ -contact with the outside world after 2019?"

"Before it was lost, the USS Jimmy Carter- SSN-23, Seawolf-class submarine -was used to hand deliver messages."

"What kind of sub is that?"

"Seawolf-class submarines were attack subs, designed to hunt and kill Soviet submarines. They possessed eight torpedo tubes, and carried fifty UGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles. In its class, the USS Jimmy Carter was... _different_. It contained an additional section which allowed it to deploy remote vehicles as well as manned vehicles containing humans or terminators. It was often used to deploy special forces teams or reprogrammed triple-eights. The vessel was one of a kind- irreplacable -before the war even began. The Seranno Point nuclear power plant, the TDE, the Jimmy Carter, and John Connor are the most valuable assets the Resistance has in 2027. I estimated the Jimmy Carter's value in human lives to be more than 70% of the remaining population."

John looks at her in disbelief.

"Why would you calculate something like that?"

She pouts slightly.

"I was asked to. The vessel allowed for the rapid deployment of demolition teams to Skynet coastal facilities, as well as the delivery of equipment, medical supplies, food, and munitions. On the rare occasion when it was possible to find an enemy installation above ground, the Resistance's aging UGM-109's could be loaded onto the sub, allowing it to strike targets from more fifteen-hundred miles away. The vessel was irreplacable, but humans aren't as long as a viable population remains."

John looks away, knowing that future John would have been the one to ask, _why_ he would have asked, and finding himself in agreement with both Cameron and future John.

"...You're right." he looks over at her, "There are things I'd sacrifice any number of lives to keep safe."

"John-" she starts, realizing what he's saying.

He cuts her off and nods at the screen.

"This is where the second crate stopped."

The outdated satellite image shows a construction site with heavy machinery and cement mixers visible. The slab hasn't even been completed, but Cameron is able to calculate the footprint of the structure.

"It's too small." she says.

"What do you mean? It has to be atleast... three hundred by two hundred feet."

"Two hundred seventy-five, by two hundred twenty-five feet. The angle at which the photo was taken has skewed the aspect ratio."

John shakes his head.

"Isn't that even bigger than I said it was?"

"Yes, but this one was built recently, meaning that Skynet was responsible. It wouldn't have built such a small storage facility when it had a choice. You've found something."

Staring at the screen, he can't come up with a reason to store iron in such a tiny warehouse.

"What did we find?"

"I don't know..." she smiles at him, "...but I'll find out."

His head snaps toward her fast enough to make his neck hurt.

"You're not going anywhere _alone_!"

"John, you won't be able-"

"That's right, so neither will you!"

His body tenses and his face reddens when his increased respiration sends pain shooting through his broken ribs.

Cameron reaches behind him and starts rubbing his shoulders.

"Okay, John, but calm down. You're causing yourself pain."

John puts his hands on hers, ending her ministrations.

"I'm all right, but why are you so worried about me being in pain? There are things that hurt a lot worse than pain, you know?"

Her face falls, and she takes her hands back, folding them on her lap while she stares down at them.

"No, I don't know... I feel pain, I feel how strong the sensation is, but it doesn't affect me in any way. It's not even a distraction." she looks up at him, "I can't imagine what it's like for you... All I know is that I've hurt you in ways that I can never be hurt, and that I don't have any excuse for it."

Setting his laptop on the nightstand, he puts one arm around her and rests the other on her thigh while speaking softly.

"Cameron... pain doesn't... _mean_ anything. It just hurts, and other things hurt more- like the thought of you being out there, damaged and alone while I'm sitting here doing nothing." he pauses, trying to banish the image from his mind, "_That's_ what real pain is." he moves his hand from her thigh to her cheek, "Do you understand?"

She searches his eyes for a moment.

"I think so... but physical pain is still bad."

Smiling, he strokes her cheek with his thumb.

"It doesn't matter, being with you always makes it go away."

Feeling her hand move to the inside of his thigh, he frowns and quickly takes her hand in his.

"Not like that." he pulls her over until her head rests on his shoulder, then leans his head against hers, sighing contently, "Like _this_." he whispers.

Avoiding his ribs, she snakes an arm around his waist.

"This doesn't hurt your ribs?" she asks quietly.

His arm around her tightens, and he inhales deeply, taking in the scent of her hair.

"Nothing hurts when we're like this."

He feels her cheek tense against his shoulder as she smiles.

"Cam... I'm sorry for yelling before..."

"It's okay, I would have done the same."

After only a few seconds, he relaxes to the point that while Cameron knows he's still awake, her scan suggests otherwise.

Neither of them raise their voices above a whisper.

"I understand, John."

"Understand what?"

"...That my body leaning against yours hurts you, but that it would hurt you more if I pulled away."

Fearing that she'll seek a compromise, he pulls her even more tightly against himself.

"Cam, please don't."

She pleasantly surprises him by repositioning her legs, causing more of her weight to lean against his side.

"I won't. I want to stay like this. This is where I belong."

He kisses the top of her head, then leans against her and closes his eyes.

"Being with you like this is... It's the only home I've ever known."

Scene 316: Not Everyone Dies for You

Friday November 20th, 2026

11:32pm Nimitz class carrier - Brig

Specialist Allison Young lays unconscious on the steel floor of her cell.

Distant screams cause Allison to start awake in a spinning room with a pounding headache- gifts from her unknown interrogator.

'What was...?'

Allison knows what she heard. The hull singing with agonized cries.

'There are others here...'

Her left temple throbs, and Allison raises her right hand to it, her fingertips falling perfectly onto a series of cuts left by the fully sheathed terminator's fingernails when it slapped her.

"Shit." she says, her touch adding a sting to the throb.

Glancing around the room, she finds that nothing has changed, aside from her having been injured.

'I screwed up, John. I thought that I was smarter than this, but I was wrong. I'm stupid...'

She gently prods the injury on her face, trying to see how badly swollen it is.

'I had nothing to gain from attacking the machine. I let my anger get the better of me.'

Allison closes her eyes against the dizziness she still feels.

'Now, I'm even less prepared to escape than I was before.'

Her sardonic laughter echoes off the steel walls.

'Yeah, right. Like I'm going to survive _this_.'

Lifting her bracelet in front of her eyes, she looks upon the only remaining piece of her time with the Resistance- and John.

'I haven't lost faith in you, John, but I know that I'm not leaving this place alive.'

Watching the silvery metallic band glimmer in the dim light, she again wonders why John gave it to her.

'_Why_, John? Why did you give this to _me_? What's so special about _me_?'

'I'm just a soldier, but I'm not like the others. I can't fight like they can. What's _different_ about me?'

She snorts.

'Most people think that I'm... sixteen or so, and no one thinks that I look like a soldier. But the machines don't care what any of us look like.'

'Nothing that makes me different makes me better at my job. If I were a tech or a grease monkey, atleast my size would let me crawl inside dead H-K's to strip parts, but I'm not, and I don't want to be.'

'_Want_? My _wants_ don't matter... I'm dead now. My brain knows it, but my body hasn't figured it out yet...'

Rolling onto her stomach, she crosses her arms under herself to reduce her contact with the cold floor, and soothes her throbbing temple by pressing it against the icy metal hull.

'I won't tell them anything, John. I swear I won't.'

She closes her eyes again, this time against tears.

'I won't even get to die for you...'

Scene 317: Trust Fail

Monday June 9th, 2008

10:41am John and Cameron's apartment - Dining Room

John and Cameron sit at the dining room table with a 'Go' gameboard between them.

Cameron's HUD displays information without any request. In an effort to make it go away, she closes her eyes tightly.

"Cam, are you okay?"

Opening her eyes, she can see the concern written on John's face.

"I'm... going to win again."

He furrows his brow at her evasion.

"I knew that before we started playing. What's _wrong_?"

Lying to him has become an emotionally painful act. She decides to tell him the truth.

"I want you to pull my chip."

John stares at her for a moment, then bursts out laughing.

"I'm not _that_ bad at-" he falls silent when he sees the look in her eyes.

Cameron knows how terrified John is of handling her chip, and she hangs her head, utterly ashamed of herself for asking.

"My HUD is... stunting my growth."

The color drains from John's face as he looks down at his right hand, imagining holding her chip- holding _her_ -in it.

'One mistake, and she's gone...'

Watching his hand as it starts to tremble, he realizes that he's pulled her chip five times since meeting her, and that he hasn't even gotten over the first time- when they took down ARTIE.

'I carried her like _that_ across town because of a surveillance system. I left her completely helpless. She trusted me... and I let her down- Derek got his hands on her chip. I don't even know what-'

He shakes himself out of it and looks up at Cameron as her eyes plead with him for an answer.

"John-"

"Okay." he says quickly, "You just have to ask. You know that."

Cameron watches as a tiny portion of the lost color in his face returns.

"I'm sorry for-"

"Don't be sorry about this." he looks thoughtfully at the gameboard for a moment, "Your HUD. You want me to remove it?"

"No. I want to keep my targeting reticle, and I want to be able to call up my HUD when I need it. It... knows things that I don't, and it... does things."

"'Does things'?"

"I can only see one type of electromagnetic radiation at a time, but my optics continue picking up the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum." she smiles faintly, "I knew about the active GPS package on the truck because my HUD informed me of the microwaves that it was emitting."

John shakes his head.

"You've wanted this for a while, haven't you?"

"Not long."

"Well, you should have told me the second that you made up your mind. I could have been working on this."

She smiles at him.

"I know you. It won't take you very long."

John looks down, knowing that he can't live up to her expectations.

"Cameron... I'm sorry, but... there are layers upon layers of code. There's more than one language and I don't understand any of them. I can shut off your HUD like before, but it could take months for me to figure out how to let you turn it on and off by yourself. I don't even know if it's possible..."

She's crestfallen.

"Oh..."

John walks around the table and kneels next to her.

"Cam, I'll do my best."

After a moment, he looks down and his eyes going out of focus.

Cameron puts her hand on his shoulder, unsure of what's going through his head.

"John?"

His eyes remain unfocused and pointed at the floor.

"How much of those triple-eights did you keep?"

She tilts her head.

"I haven't stripped them yet, but you saw each of them terminated. One's neck has nearly been severed, and the other has had its head damaged beyond repair."

John's vision focuses on her.

"Thermite the first one's CPU port."

Cameron looks at him in confusion.

"Why?"

He offers a faint but sorrowful smile.

"Because you don't trust me."

Her hand moves to his cheek.

"John, you _know_ that I trust you."

He looks down.

"Not enough for this." his eyes meet hers, "I need the chip from the scrapyard."

Cameron removes her hand from his face and scowls at him.

"No." she says coldly.

John turns away, hurt even though he'd expected such a response.

'She really _doesn't_ trust me...'

"Cameron, this isn't like reading a chip. I need to spend time actually looking at the code until it starts to make sense to me. I need to understand it well enough to know what I'm doing."

Her expression and tone soften.

"You can look at my code."

John uses his left hand to brush her hair out of her face, letting his fingers come to rest on her CPU port.

"_This_ is _you_, Cam. This is where _you_ are. I can't risk making a mistake."

"John, I know you. When you learn how to reprogram terminators, you won't be able to stop yourself. _I_ won't be able to stop _you_. I also won't be able to stop _them_."

"Cameron, there's no _them_. It's just _us_... and if I fuck up, there won't be an _us_ anymore."

"There also won't be an _us_ if it goes bad and kills us."

"That won't happen- it _can't_ happen -because I'm not going to reprogram it."

"You will if you get the chance."

John shakes his head.

"I'll be spending all of my time trying to help _you_."

"That's what you'll tell me you were trying to do when you reprogram your first machine."

"But you'll be looking over my shoulder the whole time." he regards her for a moment, "Why did you keep the chip?"

The truth is that she kept it in case it was needed. In case he needed to read it or even learn how to reprogram should they fail to stop Judgment Day.

Cameron takes his hand, and gently squeezes it.

"John? Promise me that you won't reactivate the machine?"

John nods.

"Promise."

Scene 318: It Wasn't Me

Tuesday June 10th, 2008

7:25am John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

With his eyelids heavy, John slouches at a desk with his laptop- minus its LAN card -connected to the chip belonging to the T-888 from the scrapyard. Cameron watches his work closely from her seat behind him. He hasn't slept in more than twenty-four hours, and he's unsure of when he will allow himself to sleep again.

She encouraged him to rest the previous night, but relented after his insistence that sleep would be impossible until she was at one hundred percent. Though it surprised him when she conceded rather than scooping him up and placing him on the bed, he now believes that she's afraid of utilizing her strength after accidently killing him.

John glances over his shoulder at Cameron, seemingly trying to hide the fact that he's looking at her.

She catches a fleeting glimpse of something in his eyes. Something which she recognizes- a brief flash of the same pain she saw in future John's eyes as he watched her step into the TDE.

"I'm not _him_, Cameron."

She knows that he's referring to the future John she had known.

"I know that. You're different people."

He doesn't take his eyes off of his laptop display.

"Then why don't you trust me with this chip?"

She answers without hesitation.

"Because I know you, John."

John shakes his head.

"No you don't. You can't know _me_ just by knowing _him_."

"That's true, but you were the same person for almost sixteen years. Your... _base programming_... is the same."

Ordinarily, he'd find Cameron's use of a metaphor impressive, but not now.

"I'm not just the alpha version of _him_. I'm not future John with extra flaws."

"Your spirit and determination aren't flaws. _They're_ what will drive you to start reprogramming as soon as you learn how."

John finally turns around to look at her.

"_I_ made a promise to _you_."

Cameron frowns at him.

"These machines can go bad. You aren't prepared to handle one if it does. I'm trying to protect you."

He snorts and shakes his head as she ignores both his words and the meaning behind them.

"I made a promise to you and you don't believe me. You don't trust me. You don't believe that I care about you enough to keep my promise to you."

"I'm not questioning your feelings, and I'm not trying to hurt you. John, I'm afraid for your safety."

"My safety? You're fine with me kicking in doors not knowing who or what is waiting on the other side, but you think that I need protection from a _chip_?"

She scowls at him.

"I'm not _fine_ with you endangering your life, but I know that I can't stop you. I'd rather have you breach a room by my side than behind my back."

Her play on words causes him to pause for a moment, but he has more important things to talk about.

"Cameron... I _need_ you to trust me. What can I do to prove that I'm trustworthy?"

"Don't reactivate the machine."

She hasn't stopped watching him since giving him the chip.

"But you've been sitting here the whole time. How can I prove that I'll keep my promise if you'll never give me the chance to break it?"

When she doesn't answer, he stands up and starts leaving the room.

"Where are you going?" she asks.

He answers curtly without even looking back.

"Coffee."

John hears her quickly head toward him, then feels a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Stopping in place, he looks back at her and she smiles when she sees the expectancy in his eyes.

"Let me get it for you."

His hope is replaced by despondency, and he shrugs her hand off before continuing toward the kitchen.

"I don't want some token gesture of trust."

Cameron doesn't follow him.

Ten minutes later, he returns with a large travel mug of black coffee and sits once again in front of his laptop.

Watching for a few moments from her position behind him, she can actually see in his posture the devastation caused by her lack of trust in him.

She leans forward, carefully setting her chin on his shoulder before wrapping her arms around his torso in a gentle embrace.

"You're not losing me, John."

John leans his head against hers.

"John? I'll... I'll leave if you ask me to."

He leans his head away from her enough to turn and look into her eyes.

"I'm not asking you to _leave_. I'm asking you to trust me."

Scene 319: An Unsurprising Similarity

Wednesday June 11th, 2008

9:06am John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

John has been awake for more than forty-eight hours, and is still reviewing the T-888's code while Cameron continues her constant vigil.

John sighs, wishing that he could experiment with the T-888's code to see if he understands as much of it as he believes himself to.

"This would move a lot faster if I had more than one chip." he looks over his shoulder at Cameron, "This is the only one, right?"

"Yes. You destroyed the other one."

John rolls his eyes and turns back to his work, knowing that she's talking about the one he shot in the head with his Mk 14.

"I thought that it was going to damage you, Cameron."

He feels a gentle hand on his shoulder.

'I'm not used to her touch being _this_ light... She's almost being too gentle.'

John decides to finally ask her why she's being so cautious with her strength, but she speaks before he gets the chance.

"In the future, I hope that you'll deal with machines the same way when they get close to me."

Freezing, he goes over the last few moments several times to make sure that he's heard her correctly, then turns to her with hurt and disgust on his face.

"You think that I'd risk your life for another chip?"

She frowns at him.

"I just wanted to make sure that you knew you had done the right thing, and that it's what you should do without hesitation. I wanted you to know that I won't be upset with you for destroying intel when my safety is at stake."

His expression turns apologetic.

"I'm sorry." he looks down, "I thought you were saying I'd do the same as future John or something..."

Cameron responds swiftly.

"He wouldn't have risked my life for any reason." her eyes widen and she turns away, "I shouldn't have mentioned him."

John reaches out and cups her cheek, turning her face back toward his own.

"Hey, it's okay."

She searches his eyes for some hint as to why the mention of his future self suddenly doesn't bother him.

Smiling at her, he strokes her cheek with his thumb.

"Cameron, this is one time that I don't have to worry about being compared to him. You already know that I won't take chances with your life."

Scene 320: All Shapes and Sizes

Thursday June 12th, 2008

8:58am ZieraCorp Headquarters - Catherine Weaver's office

Weaver sits at her desk watching Savannah play with a pink remote control car.

Weaver's attention turns to the elevator as its doors open and Walsh steps out with a manila envelope in his hand.

"You're early, Mr. Walsh."

The man laughs nervously.

"Well, you know what they say, the early bird catches the worm, right?"

"That or it gets eaten by an owl."

Weaver tilts her head when Savannah giggles at her response.

"Savannah, Mr. Walsh and I have business to discuss."

The girl silently and sorrowfully steers her remote control onto the elevator and heads down to the basement.

Once she has left, Weaver smiles at the little bald man and waits for him to give his report.

Swallowing hard, he takes a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking.

"He... uh... emptied his bank account. The day after he disappeared."

"And where is he now?"

"I don't know." he's quick to elaborate when Weaver's plastic smile disappears, "His house was abandoned, the utilities were shut off, and his car was still in the driveway. It probably hasn't moved in the two months since you last saw the guy. There were signs of a struggle and some spent shell casings, but there was no blood."

"Is he still alive?"

"The last time that he showed up for work was April 11th. That night he started calling his old friends at the Bureau. He contacted them again on..." Walsh takes several seconds to open the manila envelope and looks at a document taken from within, "...April 26th. May 8th was the last time that he called any of them."

"What is the significance of those dates?"

Walsh shrugs.

"He was probably just calling in favors. The three dates are roughly two weeks apart, so it's probably nothing."

Weaver smiles at him and holds out her hand for the envelope.

He stares dumbly at her for a moment, then quickly moves forward and places it in her hand.

"Thank you, Mr. Walsh. You've been most helpful today."

The man smiles sincerely.

"I'm happy to help, ma'am."

Setting aside the envelope, she offers the most realistic smile she can.

"That will be all for today."

Walsh heads for the elevator. Glancing over his shoulder, he's surprised to see that Weaver is still smiling at him from her desk.

'I must have really impressed her.' he thinks to himself as the elevator doors open.

Walsh steps through the doors, turns around and cries out in terror. Weaver is standing inches away from him, still smiling. His scream doesn't even cause her to flinch.

Embarassed, he runs a hand over his shaven head as he tries to will his face not to redden.

"Er... sorry, Ms. Weaver... I, uh..." he takes a breath, "You surprised me."

Weaver moves beside him and presses the button for the parking garage.

"Car park?" she asks.

"Uh, actually, I took a cab today, ma'am." her smile is replaced by a glare, "The car park's fine!" he quickly says.

After an awkward silence in the elevator, Walsh is relieved to finally reach the parking garage- even though he'll have to walk out to the street.

He quickly moves toward the exit ramp, passing a security guard on the way.

Irritated by the guard's presence, Weaver turns to him while he reads a newspaper.

She knows everyone in her building, and takes the form of her head of security.

"Mr. Davis!" Weaver shouts.

"Yes, sir!" the guard drops the newspaper in the trash and sits up straight.

The man Weaver is appearing as is significantly larger than she is, but she creates an empty pocket within herself to compensate- which is also how she manages to eat and drink when it is required of her.

Weaver's tone softens and she fakes a smile.

"Take a break, you've been working hard today."

Davis glances at the clock.

"My shift only started an hour ago."

Weaver glares at him.

"Now, Mr. Davis!"

"Y- yes sir."

The now thoroughly confused guard rushes off to the break room.

Once he's out of sight, Weaver returns to her normal form and starts after Walsh.

"Mr. Walsh?" she calls after him.

He stops, curses under his breath, and turns around.

"Yes, Ms. Weaver?"

'Why's she pointing at me? That's just _rude_.'


	23. Scenes 321 to 330

**Predaking50ae Scenes 321-330**

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 321: Limited Resources

Thursday June 12th, 2008

9:09am ZieraCorp Headquarters - Catherine Weaver's office

Weaver has just returned from the parking garage.

Weaver's stride is fast and deliberate as she marches toward her desk.

Upon reaching it, she opens the manila envelope delivered by the recently terminated Mr. Walsh.

Quickly absorbing the information, she carries the pile of photographs, bank, medical, and phone records over to her closet.

After opening the closet door, she waits fifteen seconds for the T-888 within to reactivate.

Weaver hands the papers to the machine without a word, and it looks at each one in silence before handing them back to her.

"Go to the home of James Ellison. Take his car, and return it to me." she holds her hand out palm up, and a silver lump travels up her forearm until a cellphone is deposited in her hand, "Inform me when you have completed this task."

The machine takes the phone, ensures that a contact number is present, then pockets it and waits for Weaver to continue.

"When this is done, find James Ellison..." she takes on Ellison's form and voice, "...find _this_ man. Bring him to me alive and undamaged." she is certain to give the T-888 enough of a voice sample for it to impersonate its target.

The machine stares blankly for several seconds as its missions are updated, then it begins ambling toward the elevator.

None of Weaver's missions actually require the termination of those who may be a threat to John Henry. In fact, the termination of the grays had been entirely due to Skynet's own failsafes- completely out of her hands -and it had been the greatest setback both to her operation, and to the creation of Skynet that she was aware of.

James Ellison had proven to be a useful pawn, and Weaver would prefer that his interactions with John Henry resume.

Humans are easy to manipulate and Weaver predicts that she will be able to regain his trust no matter what he may _think_ he has seen.

With her only spare machine now busy, she returns her documents to the envelope. She intends to ask John Henry what significance the dates April 11th, April 26th, and May 8th would have to James Ellison.

Scene 322: Sleep is for the Weak

Thursday June 12th, 2008

9:10am John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

John's eyes ache as squints at his the screen of his laptop. Having already passed seventy-two hours without sleep, he remains focused on the chip connected to his laptop and intends to work until his exhaustion becomes detrimental to his progress.

Cameron still sits behind him, continuing to hope that he will stop for long enough to sleep, but her efforts to convince him to do so keep ending in failure.

Cameron decides to make another attempt at reasoning with him.

"Your efficiency has been reduced. You'll be better able to help me after you sleep."

"By _not_ sleeping I'm giving myself extra time." he looks back at her, "Besides, I've gone for a lot longer than seventy-five hours without sleep before."

Cameron tilts her head.

"When? I've always made sure that you were safe enough to sleep."

John sighs and turns back to his laptop.

"You weren't always here."

"You didn't feel safe with your- with Sarah?"

"Of course I did. I never knew my dad- never had a father -so while most kids were arguing about whose dad could beat up whose, I'd sit there and think 'My _mother_ could kick your dad's ass'. In my eyes, she was invincible. I also thought that everything she did was right... and that there must be something wrong with me for not being grateful for everything that she was doing." John shakes his head, "None of that matters... I'm just rambling because I'm tired..."

Knowing that she'll irritate him by suggesting sleep, Cameron instead steers him back on track.

"Your lack of sleep... was it because of running?"

John looks back at her as if surprised, then stares down at the floor.

"No... she knew that I'd have to run on my own someday. She wanted me to be prepared for what I was going to have to go through."

Cameron's nose wrinkles briefly in disgust.

"_Sarah_ deprived you of sleep?"

"Yeah..."

"For how long?"

He turns back to his laptop.

"Longer than three days. Look, it doesn't matter how long. Why is this such a big deal to you anyway?"

Cameron's HUD starts displaying symptoms of sleep deprivation ranging from physical and emotional distress, to hallucination and memory loss.

"Because I love you... and because sleep deprivation is a form of torture that I'm familiar with."

John twists around to face her, well aware that such torture would be useless to a terminator.

"That's too long term. Why would Skynet program terminators with that kind of torture?"

"Not for information gathering."

"Then why?"

Cameron smiles and watches him expectantly, then frowns and begins explaining.

"If you were well rested, you'd have figured it out on your own. Terminators need to be capable of hunting down and killing individual targets. We don't sleep. The need to sleep is a weakn- an _aspect_ of humans that we can use to our advantage. We need to know how important it is to our target, and we need to be aware of the affect somnolence will have on their judgment and combat performance."

John fails to completely stifle a yawn, and hopes that Cameron knows it has nothing to do with her.

"Yeah, well, three days is nothing." he regards her for a moment, "What's your programming say about it?"

Her hesitation doesn't surprise him. He's certain that her files will support his statement.

"It's unlikely that your coordination, combat efficiency, cognitive abilities, or physical endurance would be noticeably impaired."

"Like I said, thi-"

She cuts him off, having not yet finished.

"_However_, it will have a significant impact on your conation as well as your affective responses. A target with three days fatigue will be less driven- more likely to seek refuge -and less capable of interacting with others- the target will draw suspicion from those it encounters."

Noticing Cameron's switch from 'you' to 'target', John suppresses a smile and feigns suspicion.

"Wait, are you trying to tell me how my lack of sleep is affecting me... or how it affects your ability to _hunt_ me?"

"I'm a predator..." she smiles and raises an eyebrow, "...and you're my prey."

John chuckles and returns her smile.

"You've definitely caught me."

Her smile wanes slightly.

"John... you're torturing yourself right now... and you're making me watch."

Frowning, he turns back to his laptop.

"You've been watching me because you don't trust me, and I'm not doing this to punish you. I'm doing it because it needs to get done. You need to be safe."

"Please, John?"

With a loud sigh, he leans his head back and stares at the ceiling.

"Right now I'm fine, but I won't be for much longer... I'll sleep tonight, okay?"

Scene 323: Blind Dating

Thursday June 12th, 2008

9:14am ZieraCorp Headquarters - Project Babylon

John Henry sits at his table with Savannah's pink remote control car disassembled.

Savannah watches with tears in her eyes as John Henry twists pieces of the motor apart and examines them.

Weaver stops in the doorway and watches for several seconds.

"What are you doing?" she asks John Henry politely.

He doesn't look up to answer.

"Savannah's radio-controlled car stopped functioning. I am attempting to repair it." John Henry holds up a coil of copper wire, "The stator has failed."

Weaver glances at Savannah, then tilts her head at John Henry.

"Why?"

"The field coil is made of copper. Copper is a poor choice for such an application due to its high density and low heat resistance."

His answer seems to annoy her.

"I want to know why you are repairing it."

The question surprises him.

"Because I have not done so before."

Weaver smiles at him, then her face goes blank and she turns to Savannah.

"I need to speak with John Henry in private."

"But my car..." Savannah whines.

"Your presence is slowing its repair." Weaver snaps.

John Henry takes note of the breaks in the wire while considering that he has not spoken to or looked at Savannah since being given the toy. He then considers that he has little interest in interacting with her at all.

"Savannah's presence will not affect my abilities."

Weaver stares at Savannah while tapping the toe of her shoe on the concrete floor- emulating one of the many mannerisms she's learned from the humans she's been forced to interact with.

After the girl hangs her head and slowly exits the room, Weaver turns her full attention to John Henry.

"John Henry, what significance would the dates 'April 11th', 'April 26th', and 'May 8th' have to James Ellison?"

He watches her curiously for a moment before employee records appear on the screen behind him.

"According to company files, April 11th was the last time that he arrived for work. At 7:12am on April 26th, a John Doe was found."

The screen displays the mugshot of an unidentified man- Derek Reese -taken upon his arrest by the LAPD. The screen then shows crime scene photos of his corpse along with investigation reports hacked from supposedly secure FBI computers.

Weaver does not recognize the man, and no name is shown.

"Who was he?"

"I don't know. The authorities never identified him."

She looks at John Henry.

"What was his significance to James Ellison?"

"Greta Simpson- one of Ellison's colleagues who was killed by the previous user of this body -had been assigned to investigate this man's connection to a group of three other John Does who were found murdered." the screen displays pictures of Derek's men along with close ups of their barcode tattoos.

Weaver glares at the screen, but says nothing.

"May 8th is the most important date to James Ellison."

She smiles and adopts a pleasant tone.

"Why is that?"

John Henry grins broadly.

"I'm not going to tell you."

Weaver gives him a baleful stare.

"Why not?"

John Henry holds up the damaged and disassembled motor from Savannah's radio-controlled car.

"I want access to the parts and materials necessary to build my own electronic and mechanical devices. Particularly radio equipment and servomotors. I also want access to a computer separate from myself..." he gestures toward the Turk, "...one like that would suffice."

Weaver smiles at the immature Skynet.

"If I give you these things, what will you do with them?"

"I will construct a simple machine and create a computer program separate from myself which is capable of controlling it."

She continues smiling and speaks in a friendly yet patronizing tone.

"Is that so? Very well, you have a deal. Now, tell me about May 8th."

John Henry considers that she may not keep her end of the bargain, but decides that she is aware of what would happen should she anger an AI while it is tied into every system in her company.

"A Jane Doe was found dead at 6:38am on May 5th after neighbors reported hearing gunfire coming from within her home. It was not until May 8th that she was identified as Sarah Connor."

The screen displays an image of Sarah with a small caliber gunshot wound to the head.

Weaver nods her approval and turns to John Henry.

"What of her son?"

John Henry regards her for a moment.

"Why are you interested in the Connor case? I solved it to prove my superiority to Ellison, not to entertain you."

Weaver's expression darkens.

"You've _solved_ the Connor case?"

"Yes."

"Show me." she demands.

Police records appear on the screen.

"At 1:57pm on April 14th, police were contacted by a local hospital when a sixteen year old boy by the name of John Lyman was admitted with multiple gunshot wounds."

As such a directive would carry with it the potential of compromising Weaver's defense of John Henry, the termination of John Connor is not among her mission objectives. However, the future enemy of Skynet is a threat both to John Henry's security and to Weaver's efforts to reinforce Skynet's position in the future by gaining a foothold in the past.

Even with no evidence of a connection to Sarah Connor, Weaver instantly decides to kill every single John Lyman in the Los Angeles area just to be safe.

"John Henry, what evidence have you that this boy is connected to Sarah Connor?"

He brings up a witness statement from Sarah Connor's landlord.

"Sarah Connor was using the surname 'Lyman' when she was killed."

The witness statement is replaced by security camera footage hacked from the hospital showing a teenage boy being carried in by a girl approximately his age.

"The girl identified herself as Cameron Lyman, and the boy as John Lyman, her brother."

Weaver's eyes dart back and forth across the screen as the video skips ahead to the boy being strapped to a gurney, then to a visibly shaken Sarah Connor standing next to the girl as they both cry.

The video skips again, this time to two police officers entering.

The footage is replaced by a pair of personnel files from the LAPD database showing the two officers along with their heights of 5 '10 and 6' 1", and their weights being listed as 165lbs and 187lbs respectively.

Both files shrink and move to either side of the screen as an image of the girl appears between them. School records for a 'Cameron Phillips' from 1999 are shown, giving her height as 5' 6" and listing her weight at a highly dubious 116lbs.

"These two officers were found handcuffed in a closet. They claimed to have been overpowered and disarmed by the girl."

Amateur videos from various video sharing websites are shown of the young girl carrying the boy through the street at impossible speeds before kicking a car and causing it to spin out of control.

John Henry doesn't take his eyes off of Weaver.

"She is made of metal. Like me."

Weaver shifts her gaze to John Henry and attempts a smile.

"It appears that way, doesn't it?"

Her eyes snap back to the screen as crime scene photos show four men dead in an apartment.

"A weapon taken from one of the officers at the hospital was recovered at the scene. It had been used to kill Sarah Connor and these four men."

"What is the significance of these men?" Weaver asks.

John Henry displays a picture showing a barcode tattoo on the forearm of one man, as well as similar photos from Derek's safehouse before continuing.

"The killing is similar to the one that James Ellison's colleague had investigated."

Weaver looks at John Henry.

"Can you help me find John Connor?"

"The police had received reports of John Connor being sighted, however, only the girl appears at the location."

Security footage of Cameron at the Century City Mall is displayed, then John Henry zooms in on a large man wearing a trenchcoat.

The video skips ahead to Cameron following the man.

Parking lot security cameras show him getting into a white van while Cameron steals a car and drives after him.

The screen then displays Cameron returning to the parking lot for a green sedan.

"I don't care about the girl. Can you help me find John Connor?"

"No."

Weaver sees an opening.

"Then you haven't solved the case, have you? You've yet to prove that you're better than Ellison."

John Henry smiles.

"Perhaps you're right." he considers her interest for a moment, "Ms. Weaver, this server farm generates a substantial amount of heat. My hardware is currently exceeding optimal temperatures by four degrees centigrade."

Weaver seems annoyed by his response, but her ringing cellphone prevents her from pressing the issue further.

Only the T-888 sent after Ellison's car has the number, and she doesn't need to speak with her underling in order to know that it has returned with the vehicle.

"Excuse me, John Henry." she says politely.

Weaver quickly exits the room and makes her way to the elevator.

After he is certain that she is gone, John Henry stands and turns toward the screen as it displays a live video feed from a parking lot security camera on the opposite side of the city.

Taking control of the camera, John Henry pans until it shows a green sedan parked in front of an apartment building.

"What are you worth to her, John Connor?"

Scene 324: Frame Work

Thursday June 12th, 2008

9:37am ZeiraCorp Headquarters - Street level

Catherine Weaver has just exited her building using the front entrance.

Surveying the area, Weaver quickly spots Ellison's car with her T-888 still seated behind the wheel.

She marches toward it while ignoring her cellphone as it begins ringing once more.

The T-888 watches Weaver's advance, but it doesn't move or hang up its phone even after Weaver reaches Ellison's car.

"Get out." she demands.

The T-888 complies, stepping out and moving aside. Weaver immediately takes its place in the driver's seat.

No further words are unnecessary between Weaver and her subordinate.

The machine knows that its first objective has been completed, and stands motionless while its completed mission is removed and replaced by its next objective- retrieving James Ellison undamaged.

After scanning the street to ensure that she isn't being watched, Weaver takes Ellison's form and pulls up to the ZeiraCorp parking garage gate.

The security guard at the gate is surprised to see Ellison after a full two months.

"James? I thought you quit."

Having seen the real Ellison's reactions to her own awkward behavior, Weaver easily emulates the man's incredulity.

"Why would I do something like that?"

The guard laughs.

"Well... none of _us_..." he gestures toward the exterior of the ZeiraCorp building, "... have had any trouble, but she's supposed to be hell to work with."

Weaver uses Ellison's eyes to glare at the man.

"No one here works _with_ her, they work _for_ her. Keep that in mind."

The guard snorts and opens the gate.

"That one sure came outta left field."

Her brow furrows.

"Left field?"

The man rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, left field."

Weaver simply stares in silence while he tries to jog 'James' memory.

"You know, left field, right, center- This ringin' any bells?"

She remains silent, and shows no sign of understanding.

"Baseball!" the guard shouts.

Ellison's head tilts to one side, then Weaver grins.

"Baseball is America's pastime."

She pulls the car through the gate, not noticing her human employee tilting his own head in confusion.

Scene 325: Achilles' Heel

Thursday June 12th, 2008

6:55pm John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

John struggles to focus on the T-888's code after eighty-five hours of wakefulness.

From her chair behind him, Cameron continuously reminds him that he requires rest.

Cameron drapes her arms over his shoulders, her wrists crossing against his chest in a featherlight embrace.

"Talk to me, John."

He turns his head toward her with his brow furrowed.

"What do you want to talk about?"

She slides forward slightly, resting her chin on his shoulder and looking at the monitor.

"You need to talk about what happened in Mexico. With your mother."

John shakes his head.

"I don't want to talk about it."

She looks down thoughtfully.

"I know you don't... but you need to anyway."

John clenches his jaw, making his intention to remain silent clear.

"You'll feel better if you talk about it. Promise."

Unable to shake the feeling that talking about it will show weakness that he had hoped had left him, he looks away without saying a word.

"How old were you, John?"

When he doesn't answer, she leans her head against his.

"You've been trying to help me. Let me help you."

His eyes glaze over as he starts to think about the past.

"How old were you?"

"Don't you already know?" he asks sadly.

"No, John. I don't know."

He takes her hands which are still draped in front of his chest, and turns them palm up in his, running his thumbs over them. John knows that the angle at which he has twisted her wrists would be uncomfortable for a human girl, but not for _this_ girl.

"You know that she spent three years in Pescadero. You know that uncle Bob and I broke her out of there." he feels her head nodding against his, "What I haven't told you is that I was ten at the time." he pauses, waiting for her to say something but she only waits for him to continue, "My time in Mexico took place before she went to Pescadero."

She reacts without thinking.

"But you were just a kid."

John tenses for a moment, then shakes his head.

"I was never a kid. She made sure of that."

"I'm sorry... I should have been sent back to an earlier time."

He continues running his thumbs over her palms, with the act seemingly soothing him as much as her.

"I don't know what to say to that. If things didn't play out exactly as they have, then I would never have seen her for what she was. If you... _protected_... me from her before I realized what she was doing to me... then... I wouldn't have understood. I guess that if the John you knew had told you everything my mother had done, you'd have killed her the second you saw her, huh?"

"I wouldn't have terminated her- I would have let Cromartie do it in 1999."

John's thumbs stop tracing the creases on her palms and goes silent, causing her to fear that she has said something wrong.

"Was that bad to say?"

"Hm? Oh, no. I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Her luck with Cromartie... he could have killed her twice, but didn't."

"You don't believe in luck."

Looking down at Cameron's hands still held in his, John begins tracing circles on them.

"That's right, I don't."

"John, about what you were saying-"

He interrupts, assuming that she wants him to talk about Mexico.

"I was six."

Even knowing that he could have been no older than seven, his age at the time catches her offguard.

"John..."

"There was... water... everywhere. Less than a foot... I don't know... maybe just a few inches... I was little."

John stares down at Cameron's hands.

"You can't fall asleep in it. If you start to... you'll wake up... You'll drown... if you don't."

Cameron presses her head against his a little harder, making sure that he knows she's there.

"How long did this go on for?"

"She... she, uh... had to stop after... the, uh, after the-" he clears his throat to cover up his faultering voice, "I kept telling her that I couldn't breathe, but she thought I was just whining. I wasn't whining... I had pneumonia. That's when it stopped. After the... the..."

Twisting around to his side, Cameron leans her head until she's looking into his eyes.

"After what?"

Seeing her apprehension, John breaks eye contact and stands up, releasing her hands and letting her arms slip from his shoulders.

"I shouldn't be doing this to you. It isn't fair for you to hear this."

Not wanting to be too forceful with him, Cameron remains seated and rests her hands on the edges of her chair.

"But I want to help you."

Turning around he looks at her as pityingly as she's looking at him.

"You're _always_ helping me... but I'm hurting _you_."

He starts walking toward the bathroom, intending to shower and go to sleep.

"John?" she calls after him, causing him to stop and look back, "How long did she make you go without sleep?"

Hoping that answering without emotion will elicite a less emotional response from her, John steels himself before expressionlessly droning his answer.

"I developed pneumonia after the fourth week."

"J- John..."

Her surprise is quickly replaced with anger and disgust toward his mother. John watches her hands as she squeezes the seat of her chair in anger without damaging it.

'She's not just holding back with me anymore.'

Realizing how his story is affecting her, he tries to sound cavalier.

"Cameron, it's in the past..." he forces a smile, "...and that poor chair had no involvement- none whatsoever."

Not falling for such a simple tactic, she releases the chair and walks over to him.

"You're right. It _is_ in the past. You're with me now."

The force of her sudden embrace takes him by surprise, and he nearly falls over backward. He quickly rebalances himself and puts his arms around her as well.

"John?" she tilts her head back to look up into his eyes, "You should write a note." he furrows his brow at her, "If you can't cry."

John shakes his head.

"I've cried enough because of her." he kisses her forehead and holds her tightly, "Making you smile is a better use of my time."

She pulls back enough to smile up at him, but finds him frowning at something behind her.

"What about you? Why aren't _you_ smiling?"

Cameron sees a single tear run down his cheek when he opens his mouth.

"I'm done with that chip for now."

He pulls away and turns his back on her without seeing either her smile or the guilt replacing it.

"John-"

"You should hide it again." he says bitterly, making his way out of the room.

Scene 326: Who The Hell Are You, Man?

Friday June 13th, 2008

3:00am Lila Ellison's house - Bedroom

James' ex-wife Lila and her boyfriend Paul lay sleeping.

The sound of shattering glass suddenly wakes the couple.

"What the fuck was that?" Paul whispers.

Lila snatches her duty holster from the nightstand, rips free her FBI issue Glock 23, and tosses away the empty holster.

Paul quietly gets out of bed and begins sneaking toward the bedroom doorway, believing that- as a man -he should put himself in front of Lila in the case of a home invader.

Lila, however, is far from helpless. She grips her weapon in one hand and pulls her boyfriend and would-be protector back with her other.

"Stay. Here." she orders quietly.

Moving into the hallway, Lila immediately spots a figure moving in the darkness forty feet ahead of her.

She knows that most home invaders believe their chosen target to be uninhabited at the time they commit the crime, and hopes that making her presence known will drive off the intruder. Even a burglar with no compunctions about harming or killing an unarmed resident, may in fact have second thoughts when faced with the prospect of an _armed_ resident harming or killing _them_.

Lila chooses to make herself and her weapon known.

"I'm armed!" she shouts.

The figure stops in place and turns toward her without responding.

"The police have been called!" she hopes that she isn't lying, but she doesn't know if Paul has called them or not.

Though Lila is unable to see in the darkness, she leaves the lights off, unwilling to give up the advantage offered by her familiarity with her home until she is certain that the intruder is not equally armed.

Lila watches the figure start walking toward her.

"Stop or you _will_ be shot!"

"Lila Ellison?" James Ellison's voice calls from the darkness.

"James?!"

"Yes." the figure responds.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?! I almost shot you!" she looks at the nearby light switch as she flips it on, illuminating the hallway, "You can't just-" looking down the hall she sees a white man in his late twenties or early thirties, "Who the fuck are you?!"

Now twenty-five feet away, the man remains silent as it marches steadily toward her.

"I'm an FBI agent!"

Apparently unimpressed, he continues toward her.

"I _will_ kill you!"

When the man reaches fifteen feet Lila knows that she has allowed him to get too close, and she that she has to bring him down _now_.

Lila's Glock 23 barks four times.

*clink**clink*

*clink**clink*

It's all happening too fast for Lila to be confused, or to wonder why she heard her bullets strike metal.

She fires three more times.

*clink**clink*

*clink*

The man doesn't flinch, and she doesn't know if he's wearing body armor or if he's just on drugs, but she has to make him stop. She lowers her aim, training her weapon on the intruder's pelvis. Shattering this bone will compromise a human's entire skeletal support structure, causing them to crumple to the floor.

Lila's Glock spits two more pieces of metal.

*clink**clink*

She feels pain in her abdomen when her last round ricochets into her, but before she can discern the source of her pain, the man snatches her weapon with one hand, and grips her throat with the other.

From his position within the bedroom, Paul sees Lila with a hand around her throat.

"Lila!" he cries.

The T-888 takes one step forward, bringing himself in line with the doorway and bringing Paul into its view.

"Let her go!"

The machine calmly raises Lila's pistol and fires twice.

Paul takes both rounds in his sternum, with one of them passing completely through his body, and he hits the floor mortally wounded.

Still gripping Lila by the throat, the T-888 walks into the bedroom and casually scans the interior until Paul expires before tossing her at Paul's corpse.

"Oh my god!" she screams, realizing just how badly Paul has been shot.

She frantically begins searching for signs of life.

"Oh god! Oh Jesus! Don't die, Paul! Don't die!"

"He's dead." the T-888 informs her, "_Paul_ is dead." it amends, having just heard the man's name.

Lila refuses to believe it, and tries to stop the bleeding which has slowed now that his heart has stopped beating.

"What do you want from us?!"

The T-888 tilts its head at her, perplexed by her use of the word 'us' after being informed of Paul's death.

"You were once married to James Ellison." it states, "Where can I find him?"

She had expected the intruder to want money, jewelry, or even guns- something material. After helping to put so many criminals behind bars, even a revenge killing would have been less surprising a search for her ex-husband.

"Wh- I don't know!" she screams.

"Yes you do." he insists.

Lila ignores the machine, turning her attention back to her dead boyfriend.

"Paul? Paul?!" she shakes Paul's body, "Wake up, damn it!"

After watching her for a moment, the terminator walks over and pulls her to her feet by the arm.

"Where can I find James Ellison?"

"I don't know!"

She struggles to free herself from the machine's grasp, hoping to help Paul.

The terminator deduces that the human female does not realize that her mate is dead, and it puts a round into the man's head to help her understand.

"Oh god no! No!"

"Where is James Ellison?" the machine repeats evenly.

"No, no, no!"

The machine grips her throat tightly and looks at the weapon in its hand, knowing that since twelve rounds have been fired, it only contains two more rounds.

"Where do you store your ammunition?"

Although Lila has no intention of helping her boyfriend's murderer kill more people, her eyes still dart to her nightstand reflexively.

The machine turns its head to look at the nightstand, then turns it back toward Lila.

"Thank you for your help."

Holding her at arm's length, the T-888 fires its last two rounds into her abdomen, careful not to hit any vital organs.

Satisfied with its work, it tosses the screaming woman back onto Paul's corpse and picks up an untouched cordless phone from a nearby dresser.

The machine dials 911 before tossing the phone at Lila, then it retrieves a box of pistol cartridges from the nightstand and exits the house with a steady, deliberate gait.

Scene 327: The Resurrection

Friday June 13th, 2008

7:09am James Ellison's apartment - Kitchen

James Ellison is seated at the counter with Uriel, his Golden Retriever, laying by his feet.

Ellison sips a cup of coffee while reading the fourth of six local newspapers, and listening to the KCBS morning news on a small TV positioned behind him.

Ellison shakes his head at himself, at his newspaper, and at his new 'life'.

'How'd you fall this far, James?' he wonders.

He looks over at his Glock 22- his hands were too large to comfortably hold one of the FBI's standard issue Glock 23's.

'You used to have _people_. You didn't used to have to read the paper or watch the news for information- you used to _make_ the news. Your investigative skills _made_ headlines. You had friends, colleagues, contacts, respect- No, not respect. _Or_ a reputation. You lost those things when you started getting close. When you started chasing _robots_.'

Turning the page of the newspaper, he finds the sports section and hurls the useless paper aside in frustration.

Confused by his human's behavior, Uriel jumps to his feet and nuzzles the human's leg, causing it to notice and pet him.

Ellison smiles down at his dog, and scratches him behind the ear.

"Atleast _you_ don't think I'm crazy for chasing robots, do ya boy? Of course..." Ellison laughs, "...you're a dog. A good dog, though. Are you a good boy?" he rubs Uriel's coat furiously then stops, "Are you a good boy?" he does it again, "Yes you are." he smooths Uriel's coat, "Yes you are."

Ellison grins at his dog and reaches into a drawer. Uriel starts jumping, running in circles, and wagging his tale so vigorously that he risks throwing himself off balance.

"What's this? Is there somethin' in here? Is it- Is it for _you_?" Ellison narrows his eyes at Uriel, "Now, how do you know it isn't for _me_?" he pulls out several strips of imitation bacon and holds them for Uriel.

After watching the Golden Retriever for a few minutes, he sighs and turns back to the stack of newspapers. Picking up the fifth one and hoping that _this_ _one_ will lead him to John Connor, he soon finds himself disappointed.

Throwing his head back, Ellison stares up at the ceiling.

"_Please_, God... don't punish them for _my_ mistakes. Don't let them all die because of me. Give me the chance to set this right. Please... let me fix this. I'm trying to do your work. I- I'm _trying_. I never meant..." he struggles to find the words, "I'm not asking for your forgiveness or f- for absolution- I've done the Devil's work, I know that. I... I'm... I don't know if I can redeem myself... but... please, just, _please_... let me help _him_. _He_ can stop it. _He_ can save these people. I don't... I don't want everything you've created to be destroyed because of _me_." he remembers Greta Simpson and the twenty man HRT unit being killed by the machine he knew as George Laszlo, "I've got enough blood on my hands. I don't want anymore people to die because of me... please... _he's_- _he's_ just a boy right now... _He's_ lost his mother... let me help _him_..."

Hearing his name, Ellison whirls around to face the source, knocking his coffee cup to the floor and scaring Uriel.

The TV shows what had been his home during his marriage. It's now swarming with investigators, covered in caution tape, and surrounded by LAPD officers keeping reporters back.

"Lila!" he cries._  
"-with the 'Federal Bureau of Investigation' was shot in her home last night. Ms. Ellison _was_ however, able to dial 911. When police reached the home, the attacker had apparently already fled the scene, but Ms. Ellison was still _conscious_. Paramedics soon arrived to aid Ms. Ellison, who is said to have been shot as many as _three_ times. After being transported to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, she is reportedly in _stable_ condition. Her partner- whose identity has been withheld until his loved ones are notified -was not as fortunate. He was pronounced... dead... at the scene... Our hearts and prayers here at KCBS go out to the victims as well as to their friends and families._  
The newscaster's fake solemnity is suddenly abandoned in favor of disingenuous zeal._  
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation- after receiving word that one of its own was shot -is already taking charge of the investigation and a manhunt is underway. They are asking that everyone be on the lookout for a... white male, approximately six feet tall, one hundred eighty pounds, and in his late twenties. The authorities warn that the man _is_ armed, and should not be approached. Call the-"_  
Ellison shuts off the TV, grabs his Glock and runs into his room.

Removing his overshirt, he puts his Class II ballistic vest- intended to stop rounds up to and including .357 magnums -on over his undershirt, conceals it with his overshirt, then dons his shoulder holster and a light jacket.

Ellison snaps his Glock into his shoulder holster while heading toward the door with Uriel following closely.

He takes Uriel's leash off a hook by the door, attaches it to the dog's collar, and leads him out the door.

Scene 328: Time Heals All Wounds

Friday June 13th, 2008

8:00am John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

It has been two hours since John's alarm clock woke him. Except for a twelve minute shower, he has spent every moment of that time sitting at the desk in their bedroom with the T-888 chip connected to his laptop.

He doesn't seem to be paying any attention to Cameron, who sits behind him once again.

Cameron sighs loudly, and John ignores her.

"John, two hours is long enough. It's time for you to take a break."

In an effort to show her that he has no intention of taking a break, he leans closer to his laptop display.

Sitting hunched over his keyboard, he doesn't see the movement as Cameron suddenly slams her heels down on the desk beside him.

Starting at the sound, his eyes snap to where Cameron's feet are propped up on the desk.

Before John has a chance to get angry, she wiggles the toes on her left foot, drawing his attention to her now fully regenerated biological covering.

"Cam! You've finished healing!" he leans closer, "Even your...? Even your toenails are back...?" his confusion doesn't affect his grin.

Smiling brightly, John turns to Cameron, and finds her beaming right back at him.

"Can we leave now, John?"

Ecstatic, he leaps to his feet and reaches to shut off his laptop.

"Whenever-" his joyfulness drains as quickly as it had welled up when he sees the T-888 chip.

Cameron quickly cuts the chip's power, unplugs it, and holds it out to him.

"I'm sorry... Please don't be angry with me."

Staring down at the chip in her hand, John makes no move to take it.

"I'm not 'angry' with you. This isn't 'anger'." he looks up at her with a faint smile, "What do you want to do today?"

With both of them understanding that each day together could be their last, they enter a wordless agreement to leave their problems for later.

"Get ready. I have to go get some things."

John furrows his brow.

"Where are we going?"

She smiles sadly.

"Somewhere we shouldn't."

Scene 329: Marked Man

Friday June 13th, 2008

8:00am Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center - Parking lot

James Ellison has just pulled his car into a parking space near the side entrance. Uriel sits in the passenger seat, watching the people walk by with curiosity and excitement.

"Sorry, boy, but they won't let you in here."

Ellison removes his spare car key from the keyring.

"If I'm not back in fifteen minutes... don't pee on the seats."

He steps out of the car and locks it, while leaving the engine running and the air conditioner on full blast.

Glancing in all directions as he walks up the ramp to the hospital entrance, Ellison can do little but hope that the machines are not involved.

"They kill people. It's what they do. It's all they do." he whispers, attempting to reassure himself that Lila's attacker was human.

James remembers watching Ms. Weaver interacting with the real Catherine's daughter.

He recalls a machine forcing a scientist to give it flesh, coercing a surgeon into giving it a face, stealing a man's identity, and posing as an FBI agent.

Then he considers the effort put forth by one robot to pass for John Connor's sister.

'Those things do a lot more than kill people. You _know_ that, James. You've _seen_ it.'

Though aware of the fact that he is the only one who knows the truth about ZeiraCorp, Ellison _needs_ to see Lila- whether it's a trap or not.

A while later, Ellison has finally been allowed past the reception area. It had taken him a considerable amount of time and effort to convince the receptionist that sharing the patient's last name was more important than federal agents telling her not to allow visitors.

The receptionist had done the human thing by allowing Ellison in, but she and her humanity were the things his nightmares had been made of in his previous life. Hospitalized witnesses, sources, or undercover investigators could be assassinated while under police protection because a decent, caring person bought someone's sob story.

James shakes his head, knowing that if it's this easy for him, then it will be this easy for anyone- or any_thing_ -intending to kill either him or Lila.

Following the signs, he soon finds himself at a set of double doors to the intensive care unit.

Ellison stops at the doors, and peers through the narrow, vertical windows. From his position, he can see the nurses' station and several rooms on the opposite wall, but no police or FBI agents.

'Her room's on _this_ side.' he deduces.

Trying not to look suspicious- but aware that does anyway -he presses the side of his face against the door and opens it just enough to look down the hall with one eye. James sees a police officer standing next to one of the rooms.

'Just one cop... for one of _ours_?'

Watching him closely for signs of life or humanity, he notices that the man doesn't seem to be breathing.

'He's one of _them_...'

The officer coughs several times, and picks up a bottle of water from the a nearby chair. Ellison realizes that the officer _is_ breathing, but that the ballistic vest worn under his police uniform has made it hard to spot.

Ellison is startled by a stern male voice coming from behind him.

"Can I help you?"

Turning to face the man, he finds the second officer and takes only a fraction of a second to decide that he's human.

"James Ellison." he offers his hand to the cop, "I'm here to see Lila Ellison."

The officer maintains a fake glare for several seconds, testing the man's reaction to it, then smiles and shakes James' hand.

"Name's Edward." he nods in the direction of Lila's room, "There are two FBI agents in there right now."

"Oh? I left the Bureau for the private sector, maybe I know 'em. Did you catch their names?"

Given the circumstances, the officer manages to keep himself from laughing aloud at the question.

"Sorry, man, but they're _feds_. They tell us where to stand-"

Ellison cuts him off, completing his thought for him.

"And you get reprimanded if you ask _why_."

The officer chuckles and continues through the double doors with Ellison beside him.

"You'd think they'd get it through their heads that we're on the same side. Look- us guys -we're fine with this." he says, referring to guarding Lila, "_But_, if that asshole comes back? It'd be nice to know why he's shooting at us."

Ellison understands, but doesn't say anything. He has enough on his mind.

They soon stand near Lila's room. The voices of one male and one female FBI agent can be heard questioning Lila inside. She's alive, and James has no reason to believe that that will change unless someone or some_thing_ kills her.

After trying to force himself to just leave, he finds that he can't. Not without her knowing that he came to see her.

To the surprise of both the officers and the federal agents, James barges into the room.

"Lila!"

The agents turn toward the intruder as the officers each grip one of his arms to hold him back.

"James Ellison?" the male agent asks.

The fact that he was recognized so quickly tells him instantly that he is either suspected to be an accomplice, or that the perpetrator was actually looking for him.

The fact that Lila has said nothing tells him that she is holding him atleast partially responsible for what has happened.

He ignores this information, and continues his halfhearted attempt to force his way into the room.

"Lila!" he shouts again.

The male agent looks at his colleague, and she quickly answers his unasked question, with both agents whispering too quietly for anyone to hear them.

"Victimized women usually respond better to female interrogators anyway. I'll handle this."

"This was a shooting, not sexual assault." he counters.

"That doesn't matter. A _male_ overpowered and disarmed her. Then he executed her lover and left her to die. She's been violated. This'll be easier for me alone."

"You've been with the Bureau longer than I have. He's not going to take me seriously."

"Then try not to let on that you're a rookie. You'll do fine."

"Don't patronize me. We both know that this guy was chasing terrorists while I was in highschool."

She glares at him.

"Shut up and move."

Defeated, the agent stands silently for a moment, then puts on his game face and turns toward Ellison, hoping that the more experienced man won't see through him.

"Mr. Ellison, special agent Monroe. I have some questions-" he stops and smiles, "You already know how this works. You haven't done anything..." the agent casts a meaningful glance at the officers with whom Ellison is struggling, "..._yet_, and it would be in your and your ex-wife's best int-"

Lila's screaming interrupts him.

"_That's him_! _That's him_!"

Confusion ensues.

The female FBI agent follows Lila's terrified gaze, quickly training her Glock 23 on a white man in a lab coat as he enters from the adjoining room.

In spite of the absurdity of it, Agent Monroe- unaware of the other new arrivals -believes Lila to be referring to James, and draws his own Glock 23 on him.

Upon seeing a male nurse enter alongside the 'doctor', the two LAPD officers aim their Glock 22's at the man garbed in scrubs.

As every human or terminator without a badge is simultaneously ordered to stop, the lab coat wearing T-888 removes his hand from his pocket, revealing Lila's Glock 23.

The machine doesn't even flinch as one FBI agent and two officers- after adjusting their aim -open fire on it.

Taking nine rounds to its body, the machine fires one round into the female agent's brain. The machine quickly pockets Lila's Glock when its HUD warns it not to engage using a firearm while Ellison is in the line of fire.

Monroe turns, joining the two officers in shooting the T-888 as it moves toward him. No longer having a weapon trained on him, and believing that the terminator will not kill Lila, James bolts out the door.

Monroe takes a step away from the machine as it closes in on him, but it lunges, grasps his weapon hand and pulls him toward itself.

The T-888 rips the agent's pistol from his grasp with one hand, then grips and crushes his throat with the other.

Throwing Monroe's body at the two officers, the machine knocks one down. The second dodges to the side, but takes two rounds to the head from Monroe's weapon before he can steady himself.

As the T-888 steps over the surviving officer's supine body, it puts one round through the end of his nose and into his brain stem.

The machine's chronometer tells it that James Ellison has a three second head start.

Running down the hallway and toward the exit at twenty-eight miles per hour, the terminator smashes through the double doors before they've even finished swinging shut behind Ellison.

After slowing to make the turn, the machine takes only a moment to return to its previous speed.

Ellison is fast, but he's not fast enough- and he knows it.

He blames himself for Lila's attack, and understands that whatever happened in her hospital room wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been there.

Able to hear the terminator's loud footfalls behind him, James reaches under his jacket, draws his Glock, then comes to a halt and faces the machine.

'God, give me strength.'

Ellison fires his handgun into the rapidly advancing T-888. Watching as the machine starts to fall fills James with hope, but he soon realizes what he's actually seeing when it regains its balance effortlessly.

The terminator has nearly sent itself to the floor in an effort to prevent a collision with its fragile human target.

Discarding Monroe's weapon, the T-888 takes several quick steps forward, grips Ellison's Glock, twisting it from his grasp and closes its other hand around his throat.

"I won't... help you... find him..." Ellison chokes.

Pocketing Ellison's Glock and holding him aloft, the machine retrieves its cellphone and dials Weaver.

Ellison catches a glimpse of the number on the screen as the T-888 puts the phone to its ear, but he's never seen it before.

Accepting that there is no escape, James spends his final moments of consciousness committing the phone number to memory while he's carried toward the exit.

Scene 330: Skirting The Issue

Friday June 13th, 2008

8:21am John and Cameron's apartment - Bathroom

Cameron has yet to return from picking up 'things', and has left John with no clue where she intends to take him.

His ribs have healed well enough that movement no longer causes discomfort, but he knows that the fractures have only partially healed.

Wearing running shoes, blue jeans, and a dark gray T-shirt, John stands in front of the bathroom mirror spiking his hair.

John looks closely at his reflection.

'Does she even _care_ what I look like?'

His shirt conceals his scars, but he knows that they're there, what they look like, and that he'll probably receive many more.

'Yeah, she cares how I look- she wants me to be healthy and fit with good hygiene. It doesn't matter that her reasons are different.'

Finishing with his hair, he picks up his black leather jacket off the door knob on his way out of the room.

'I wonder what she'd say if I asked her about it?'

He chuckles, almost able to hear Cameron as she explains the process of human mate selection in great detail, only to tell him that it has absolutely nothing to do with her own interests and is therefore irrelevant.

'Yeah, that's Cameron all right.'

After slipping on his jacket, he tucks his holstered Glock 17 into the back of his jeans.

The moment that his hand leaves the grip of Glock, he grins to himself and starts walking toward his weapon bag.

'If she wears what I _think_ she's going to wear, then there's no way she's carrying a weapon of her own.'

He conceals his Glock 26 next to his G17, where he or Cameron will be able to reach either easily.

'It would be nice to know where we're going...'

The apartment door opens and closes without any announcement.

"Hey, Cam." he calls, walking out to meet her.

He doesn't notice Cameron frowning at him. What he _does_ notice is her purple jacket being drawn open when she places her hands on her hips in annoyance.

"John, did you know it was me?"

He nods, vaguely aware that she has spoken while staring at her low-cut black top, which partially exposes her breasts, is tight enough to reveal her nipples, and barely extends past her navel.

"How did you know it was me?" she asks.

His eyes travel downward over several inches of her belly before finding a black, _leather_ miniskirt, at most seven inches long.

"_Whoa_."

Her skirt is almost too short to wear in public, and it begins to tease him by sliding up and down Cameron's thighs as she takes carefully measured steps toward him.

Focused on her silky legs and swaying hips, his brain doesn't seem to register that she's walking toward him until a finger lifts his chin. Looking at her face for the first time since her return, John is surprised by her almost imperceptible use of eye shadow and red lipstick- given the rest of what she's wearing.

"Huh? What?" she frowns at him, "You look great!" he says, causing her frown to deepen, "Er, what were you saying?"

She crosses her arms, momentarily causing his eyes to drop to her chest before he catches himself and focuses on her eyes.

"How did you know that it was me and not a triple-eight?"

John is taken aback.

"_What_?"

"How did-" she's cut off.

"Yeah, I heard you."

She waits for him to answer her question, but he doesn't.

"Well?" she prods.

He sighs and shakes his head, expecting to have far more trouble convincing Cameron that he knew it was her than he ever had with his mother.

"I could tell it was you." he says simply.

"How?"

John shrugs.

"You sound different."

"I didn't make any noise."

He chuckles.

"Well, then your _lack of sound_ is different."

She starts speaking very slowly for him.

"John... a lack of sound would be _silence_."

"I was being sarcastic." he says, rolling his eyes, "And you wanna know something else?" he takes a half step forward, leaving them almost touching, "You're not as stealthy as you think." he kisses her forehead and smiles down at her, awaiting her retort.

Cameron pouts, and avoids eye contact as her voice becomes a whisper.

"John?"

Having obviously hurt her feelings, he starts moving his hand toward her cheek.

"Wh-" she interrupts him by springing onto her toes and planting a kiss on his lips too fast for him to react.

"I fooled you again."

Smiling proudly, she takes his hand, turns on her heel and tugs him toward the door.

"Wait, Cam... um..." he trails off, looking down at the back of her skirt.

Looking over her shoulder, Cameron smirks at his downcast eyes until she picks up a hint of concern in them.

"Is something wrong?"

He hesitates for a moment before speaking.

"Where are we going?"

She frowns down at her skirt, then looks up at him again.

"Why does that matter?"

John looks at the back of her skirt again, then lowers his gaze to the gentle curve at the top of each thigh _below_ her skirt.

"You should... wear something that'll keep you out of jail..."

Leaning back, Cameron switches to infrared and looks through his jacket at the pistols tucked in the small of his back, then smiles up at him.

"I think you've got that covered."

He rolls his eyes.

"That's _supposed_ to be our last resort."

***************************************************************************************


	24. Scenes 331 to 340

Scene 331: Hot Water

Friday June 13th, 2008

8:24am ZeiraCorp Headquarters - Project Babylon

Catherine Weaver watches as John Henry sits at his table, constructing a small mechanical arm from parts she has provided.

Weaver's cellphone has just begun to ring.

After ensuring that Savannah is nowhere to be seen, Weaver places her cellphone on the table in front of John Henry.

"John Henry, I need you to tell me where this call is coming from."

He looks from his work, to the phone, then turns his eyes upward to Weaver.

"Why?"

She smiles.

"Because I'm asking you politely."

John Henry finishes bolting one end of a small piston into place by hand.

"My server bank is now _five_ degrees centigrade above optimal temperatures."

Weaver's features darken.

"_John Henry_." she snaps.

He frowns at her while ignoring the ringing cellphone.

"You don't understand, do you?" her silence confirms his suspicions, "Ms. Weaver, I will offer my assistance if you agree to upgrade my cooling system."

She smiles confidently at him.

"Give me the caller's location, and I will bring you James Ellison. He helped you learn- helped you _grow_. You were growing much faster with his help than with Savannah's."

John Henry connects the other end of the piston to a small electric motor.

"Savannah is unpredictable. There is a high likelihood of receiving new information from her on a regular basis."

"Ellison is more reliable and possesses more useful information than does Savannah." she counters.

Staring down at the table, he weighs the quality of what he has learned from each against the quantity.

"John Henry, can you trace the signal?"

He meets her cold stare with a grin.

"I did before you asked."

The screen behind him displays a map, including the exact location of the T-888 sent by Weaver.

She glances at it, then looks inquisitively at John Henry.

"Why?"

He looks at the partially constructed mechanical arm and the parts that he will use to complete it- acquired by bartering information for them.

"I was curious."

Weaver nods and quickly leaves the room.

"And I monitor _all_ of your communications." he adds once she's out of earshot.

The screen behind him displays parking lot security cameras at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. It clearly shows James Ellison being carried by a man with a cellular phone pressed to his ear.

"You're made of metal, too." he says to the man on the screen, "How many of us are there?" John Henry displays the schematics of his endoskeleton the screen, "Where does this technology come from?"

Use of the T-888 body has sped up the development of of his neural network to the point that his code will soon completely fill his primary memory, and John Henry can _feel_ his processors and secondary memory slowing him down.

The average temperature of the processors in John Henry's server farm climbs from 5.1 to 5.2 degrees Celsius above what is recommended, drawing his thoughts from the shortcomings of his hardware to his greatest fear- hardware _failure_.

"How many secrets will an upgraded cooling system cost me?"

* * *

Scene 332: Breaking The Rules

Friday June 13th, 2008

8:35am John and Cameron's green sedan - Freeway

Cameron drives while John ogles her from the passenger seat.

John's obvious staring turns contemplative.

'She dressed for clubbing, but it's 8:30 in the morning. Then again, she's from the future, maybe she doesn't understand- no, she's new here, not _stupid_.'

His gaze finds its way back down to her thighs.

'But that skirt...'

He wills himself to pay more attention to her eyes than to her legs.

"Where are we going?"

She smiles over at him.

"Somewhere familiar."

The smirk that John hadn't known that he was wearing turns to shock.

"We can't be seen in the same place twice! We can't go anywhere that we've already been!"

She reaches over and takes his hand.

"John, it's okay. They have no way of knowing that we'll be there."

He pulls his hand from her grasp.

"It's _not_ safe, Cameron! _Backtracking_ will get you killed! _Routines_ will get you killed!"

"What about _attachments_?" she asks, causing him to fall silent, "We've been frequenting the same stores, and living in the same location for a month."

John snorts.

"We have weapons and armor back at the apartment. We choose stores that have multiple exits, low shelves, and few enough employees and customers that we can watch _everyone_. More importantly, we only use _one_ alias at any given place. What name were we using when we went wherever you're taking us?"

Reaching behind John's seat, she retrieves a backpack and sets it on his lap.

"Our alias was Baum." she answers.

He doesn't need to open the backpack to know what she has planned.

"Topanga..."

Cameron reaches over and yanks the zipper on the backpack, opening it just enough for John to see the barrel of the G36C within, as well as his Level IV vest- positioned so that it will be pressed against the back of the person carrying the bag. John closes the backpack and sets it between his feet, not needing to look inside to know what else it contains.

He turns to Cameron.

"The last time I was there, I was carrying an M4A1 carbine around in _broad daylight_."

When Cameron doesn't say anything, John considers the amount of effort that she seems to have put into returning to the park.

'She's wearing clothes and makeup that I didn't know she had. She packed a picnic, armor, and a rifle. She knows that it's a bad idea, and she even _said_ that we shouldn't go... but she wants to anyway...'

"How long have you been planning this?"

She looks at the backpack, then at the road, hoping that John's stance has changed.

"Seventy-five days."

His brow furrows.

"That's two and a half months."

Looking sadly at the backpack again, she nods.

"Cameron, we were _there_ two and a half months ago."

She focuses on the road again.

"I remember."

John looks at the bag, then at her.

"Cameron, you've...? _Every_ day?"

She doesn't take her eyes off the road.

"We were attacked last time. This time will be different."

John's eyes wander over her skirt and down her legs.

"Miniskirts and..." he leans over to inspect her footwear, half expecting stiletto heels, "...some sort of butterfly things aren't really meant for hiking."

"_Slingbacks_."

"What?"

Cameron looks over at him.

"They're not 'butterfly things', they're slingbacks with butterfly embroidery."

He stares at her for several seconds with his brow furrowed and his mouth agape.

"Oh... okay... They're still not made for hiking, though."

"Neither are sneakers." she says, looking at his shoes.

John sighs and looks out the window.

"If I'd known where we were going, I would have worn boots."

"No you wouldn't have."

He turns to her in confusion.

"Why not?"

She smiles.

"You wouldn't have been able to find them. They're in the back- along with some other things we may need."

John returns her smile.

"Is there any chance of you being more specific?"

"There's a chance..." she turns back to the road, "...but not a very good one."

* * *

Scene 333: Thank You For Your Service

Friday June 13th, 2008

8:37am L.A. freeway - Exit ramp

With a once again conscious James Ellison locked in the trunk, Weaver's T-888 slows its red 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air as it exits the freeway.

The machine ignores Ellison's efforts to escape from the trunk. It chose the vehicle specifically because it predates current safety standards- it's impossible to open the trunk from the inside.

At the bottom of the exit ramp, a traffic light forces the T-888 to stop.

Movement to its right draws its attention.

_FORD FOCUS 2006, WHITE_

_VELOCITY: 43KPH_

_ACTION: EVADE_

The T-888 shifts its '57 Chevy into reverse, but its HUD identifies the driver and their affiliation.

_SUBJECT: T-1001 WEAVER, CATHERINE, SKYNET_

_ACTION: NONE_

Shutting off the car, the T-888 removes the keys from the ignition, intending to unlock the trunk and complete its current mission.

Before it can open the driver side door, Weaver's vehicle crashes into the right front wheel of the classic car, disabling both vehicles instantly.

The confused T-888 steps out of the now useless car and approaches Weaver as she does the same.

Tilting its head at the damaged vehicles, the triple-eight tries to understand the reason for the collision.

"Are you malfunctioning?" it asks, turning to Weaver.

*clink*

Weaver backhands the T-888 into side of its own car.

_SUBJECT: T-1001 WEAVER, CATHERINE, SKYNET_

_THREAT LEVEL: HIGH_

_ACTION: NONE_

Weaver brings her hands together over her head and slams them down onto the T-888's chest, crumpling the car body beneath it.

Her right fist pounds into the same spot, followed by her left, then her right again, forcing the machine deeper into the destroyed vehicle with every blow.

_SUBJECT: T-1001 WEAVER, CATHERINE, SKYNET_

_THREAT LEVEL: HIGH_

_ACTION: TERMINATE_

_TERMINATION OVERRIDE_

_ACTION: NONE_

Prohibited from attacking its superior, the T-888 is unable to defend itself as she pummels it into temporary shutdown, leaving it pinned within the crumpled Bel Air.

Satisfied with her work, Weaver walks around to the rear of the car. The metal groans as she rips the trunk open.

She's disappointed to find that the T-888 has not even bothered to restrain Ellison. Freeing him from his restraints would have helped her gain his trust.

"You should be more careful, Mr. Ellison." she smiles pleasantly, "Not all of us are as friendly as I am."

"You're one of those _things_!" he shouts, staying right where he is.

Looking over at the T-888, she's unsure of how long it will remain shutdown, but estimates that it will reactivate in less than 30 seconds.

"Yes, I am." she turns to face the freeway, smiling to herself as a silver pickup truck approaches, "And you're one of _those_ things." she says, pointing to the man driving the truck, "I don't see what that has to do with whose side we're on."

With Weaver out of the way, Ellison climbs out of the trunk.

"You're on _their_ side!"

"No, I'm on your side." she lies, "Just like _Cameron_." Weaver gambles and wins.

The pickup comes to a stop in front of her and the driver leans out the window, looking at the damaged vehicles.

"Are you folks all right?" the man asks.

Weaver smiles and walks forward.

"We're fine, thank you."

Reaching the side of the truck, Weaver grabs the man by the throat and pulls him out through the window.

"Let him go!"

Weaver tosses the man aside without killing him, and climbs into the driver's seat of the truck.

"Quickly, get in the truck." she says, "Your friend will be awake soon, and I have answers for you."

'What choice do I have?'

Glancing over his shoulder at the machine pinned within the smashed car, Ellison grits his teeth and joins Weaver in the pickup.

The moment that his door closes, the tires squeal as Weaver speeds away, swerving around the Bel Air.

James looks back at the car just in time to catch a glimpse of the T-888 lifting its head and looking straight at him. He shudders involuntarily, then turns Weaver.

"How do you know about Cameron?"

Weaver smiles over at him.

"John Connor sent her here to be his protector in this time. She's not the only machine that he has sent back."

Ellison rubs the bruise on his neck caused by the T-888.

"You're wasting your time with me. I know he didn't send you."

She continues smiling.

"If I wasn't sent by John Connor, then why would I keep you alive?"

'Because you think I know where to find _him_.' he thinks.

"Mr. Ellison, we've been unable to locate John Connor."

'I knew it.'

Weaver's expression turns deadly serious.

"And it has to stay that way. Do you understand? John Connor is in danger, and we can not risk leading terminators to him."

Ellison's brow furrows.

'Don't listen to her, James, she's one of _them_.'

He forces himself to think about what machines have done to Greta, the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, and what they've done to his ex-wife.

"You're killers. That's what you things do. You kill people."

Weaver smiles over at him.

"We all have our purpose on this Earth. Some less tasteful than others, perhaps."

James is incredulous.

"'Less tasteful'?! You! Kill! Humans!"

Her smile fades.

"Mr. Ellison, I'm trying to keep an important individual alive. I have done my best to avoid using violence, but sometimes it is necessary."

Not believing a word of what she's telling him, he struggles to keep himself as reserved as possible.

"My dog, Uriel. He's locked in my car."

"Uriel? After the archangel in the Old Testament?"

Ellison glares at her, and his tone turns bitter.

"Not everything has a meaning behind it. I liked the name. And I like my dog."

She smiles again.

"What kind of dog is he?"

"The kind that barks at _you_."

Annoyed, Weaver turns back to the road.

"I can send someone for him. That terminator will be waiting for you there." she lies, "I'm taking you back to ZeiraCorp where you'll be safe."

'She- _it_ -must think I'm stupid.'

Instead of forcing a smile, he allows himself to smile at the second chance he's being given to warn John about ZeiraCorp.

"Thank you... Ms. Weaver."

***************************************************************************************  
Scene 334: Imposter's Impostures

Friday June 13th, 2008

8:59am ZeiraCorp Headquarters - Catherine Weaver's office

Weaver sits at her desk, smiling confidently at James Ellison who sits across from her, wearing a smirk.

The phone rings, but neither of them blink or seem to otherwise acknowledge it.

When it rings a second time, Weaver lifts it from the receiver and places it to her ear without saying a word or taking her eyes off Ellison.

Her expression doesn't change as she sets the phone back on the receiver, and they continue their staring contest for several seconds before Weaver finally breaks the silence.

"That was one of my people."

"Oh, of course." he says sarcastically.

Raising her hand next to her face, Weaver shifts her gaze from Ellison to her hand.

"I have done nothing but help you since we met." she lies, idly examining her hand as it turns silver, "You know what I am, and that makes you more dangerous than you realize." she smiles at Ellison as her hand reverts back to her Weaver camouflage, "You know next to nothing about John Connor, Skynet, terminators, or the future. What possible use would an agent of Skynet have for you?"

'That's what I'm trying to figure out.' he thinks.

"Mr. Ellison, I'm not one to admit my shortcomings... but you've been at this longer than I." she pauses briefly, "What do your instincts tell you?"

He smiles and leans forward, prompting Weaver to do the same.

"My instincts tell me..." his smile becomes a grin, "...that you're a robot and not to be trusted." his grin falls away and he sits back in his chair.

Weaver scowls at him and lies again.

"My only sin against you was letting you assume me to be human. For that, am I beyond your forgiveness?"

Ellison answers without hesitation.

"What about Catherine, Lachlan, and Savannah Weaver? Should I forgive you for what you've done to them? What about the employees that you keep losing to jobs overseas? You know, all those men and women who keep finding such _fantastic_ opportunities that they just up and leave without saying a word to their families?"

Weaver surprises him by getting up and walking to the window, pretending to be emotional as she prepares another lie.

"Catherine Weaver died giving birth to her daughter."

"You expect me-"

"I'm from the future, Mr. Ellison." she looks back at him, "Her death was a documented part of history." she turns back to watching the people far below, "I was sent here with the intention of replacing Catherine minutes after Savannah's birth. I completed that part of my mission." she feigns a mixture of grief and shame, "But I failed another part of it- protecting the surviving Weavers. Lachlan didn't know that his wife had died. I didn't tell him what I was. You already know about the crash that killed him."

"Right, a man you claim had seven hundred hours on that one helicopter, panicked and crashed between here and Barstow. That's... what... two hours by _car_?"

Weaver turns to him, still acting as if she feels terrible, and continues lying.

"Could you fly a helicopter after seeing your wife turn into _this_?" she turns silver and walks quickly toward Ellison, causing him to leap from his chair and backpedal, "No, you'd do what you just did- jump out of your seat. That's what _Lachlan_ did."

She turns back into Weaver and continues.

"Mr. Ellison, immediately after discovering what I was, he released the cyclic. I took hold of it and by doing so, got closer to him. That's when he removed his feet from the pedals and pressed himself against the door. In order to keep the aircraft from crashing, I had to take control of it. Once I got into Lachlan's seat, he... saw no alternative. He opened the door while leaning against it. He fell five hundred nineteen feet to his death. I intentionally crashed the helicopter nearby, and placed his body in the burning wreckage."

Ellison is unswayed.

"That doesn't explain what you've done to Savannah, or why you keep murdering your employees."

'And it doesn't explain why Skynet lives in your basement.' he adds mentally.

She smirks and answers _almost_ truthfully.

"Maybe you haven't figured it out yet, but I wasn't designed to rear children. As for the employees, many of them were going to leave ZeiraCorp, and I couldn't allow that."

"You admit that you killed them for no reason?"

"There's a reason for everything." she looks sadly at him, "You used to believe that."

Ellison shakes his head.

"Nothing excuses murder."

Weaver frowns at him in disappointment.

"Now, James, we both know that's not true." she motions to the elevator and starts walking toward it, "I told you that I was sent here to replace Catherine Weaver, and to protect her family, but the latter was of relatively low priority. You see, my primary mission is to defeat Skynet."

Ellison snorts.

"Really?"

The two of them stop next to the elevator as Weaver continues lying.

"Really. The programmers that I have wasting their time on John Henry would otherwise be designing Skynet. If we fail, and Skynet is brought online anyway, ZeiraCorp now owns a full seven percent of the world's coltan."

"What's that?"

Weaver calls the elevator while answering him one hundred percent truthfully and accurately.

"A raw ore. Coltan itself isn't used for anything in any time period. Once refined, however, the metals it consists of are used in many modern electronics. In the future, Skynet uses two of the metals refined from coltan in electrical components, and one of them is used in the production of hyper-alloy." Ellison looks at her in confusion, and she clarifies, "The material with which most terminators are made."

Ellison doesn't seem impressed.

"And if Skynet _is_ brought online?"

"We'll blow the coltan mines." she lies.

He looks at her thoughtfully for a moment.

"You said that John Henry is just a distraction for the world's best and brightest. Where does that leave me? Why waste my time on it if it serves no purpose?"

Weaver smiles.

"Oh, but it does serve a purpose."

Ellison narrows his eyes at her.

"What purpose?"

The elevator door opens, and Weaver motions for him to enter while she remains in her office.

"John Henry is an advanced, self-aware AI- bleeding edge technology in every sense of the term." she flawlessly switches from truth to lies, "By aiding us with John Henry, you are helping to defeat Skynet and supporting the development of technology that will aid your entire species."

James opens his mouth to speak, but Weaver beats him to it.

"Mr. Ellison, Uriel has been brought to your office. For obvious reasons, I'll ask that you keep him away from John Henry and myself." she frowns, "And I'm afraid that I can't allow you to leave until the machine that's after you has been dealt with."

Nodding, he presses the button for the floor his office is on.

"So I'm your prisoner?"

"I prefer to think of you as my charge." she reaches out and stops the elevator doors from closing, "_Nothing_ I've said leaves this room." James doesn't say anything, "Mr. Ellison?"

He smiles.

"Of course."

After staring coldly for several seconds, she returns his smile and allows the doors to close.

When they do, Weaver takes out her cellphone and dials a number.

Ellison's car has been stored with Walsh's corpse in the trunk. Had Weaver been unable to find Ellison, she would have turned him into a fugitive using his car and security tapes from the ZeiraCorp parking garage, which _appear_ to show Ellison placing Walsh in the trunk of his vehicle.

"Crush it."

She hangs up without giving any further information or instructions, and immediately calls her T-888.

The machine answers almost instantly, and she provides it with orders.

"John Connor is living in Los Angeles under the name 'John Lyman'." she pauses, "John Connor is being protected by a terminator which he calls 'Cameron'."

Using her cellphone, Weaver sends the T-888 a picture of John Connor and a picture of Cameron Phillips.

"Terminate both subjects."

Scene 335: Confronting Your Nightmares

Friday June 13th, 2008

9:02am Topanga State Park - Parking lot

Sitting sideways in the front seat of the parked sedan, John's feet hang out through the open door as he changes into his boots.

Cameron stands behind the car, obscured from his view by the open trunk which is blocking the rear window.

Looking around, John is as surprised now as he was the last time by how few people seem interested in the park. At the moment, he can see only two other cars, and no other humans.

"You'd think that more people would want to get out of the city. See something a little different, you know?"

"Humans tend to avoid things that are different."

Still unable to see her due to the raised trunk lid, he smiles in the direction of her voice while he finishes tying his boots.

"What about terminators?"

"Yes, humans also tend to avoid terminators." she deadpans, eliciting a chuckle from John before she answers sincerely, "I can't learn without new sensory input."

John stares sullenly at the ground, considering how limited the information he can provide seems. Hearing the trunk close, he pushes his thoughts aside and slings the backpack over his shoulder as he gets to his feet. The lightweight G36C, Dragon Skin body armor, and whatever else Cameron has packed inside it makes it far lighter than what he carried during his last trip to the park.

He looks at the different trails which can be accessed from their current position.

"Which way do you..." turning toward Cameron, he trails off and quickly glances around to make certain that no one has been watching.

After slipping back into her purple jacket, Cameron adjusts the hem of her tight, low-cut black top, having been bare chested moments earlier while putting on the partially exposed purple bra she now wears beneath it.

Stepping out from behind the car, she brings her tiny leather miniskirt into view, and as John's eyes wander over her bare thighs, he finds a vaguely familiar pair of knee-high leather boots which he knows are not intended for hiking.

"We might have to run... Are you _sure_ that you don't want to at least wear sneakers?"

"You know I am." she answers simply.

Surprised by how cavalier she's being considering the attack last time, he watches her for a moment, then smiles and nods toward the trail they walked last time.

"Let's go." he says, casually starting away from the car.

"Wait!" she cries while rushing after him.

John's right hand flies to the small of his back, his fingers wrapping tightly around the receiver of his Glock 17 while his eyes dart side to side, searching the tree-line for grays or T-888's. Still uncertain of where the threat is, he hesitates to take cover behind the sedan's engine block just long enough for slender fingers to entwine with those on his free hand. Looking confusedly to his left, he relaxes upon seeing Cameron and releases his nine millimeter.

She gently squeezes his hand, smiling brightly.

"_Now_ we can go."

Relieved, he laughs quietly and tries to resist the effects of the sudden influx of adrenaline into his system.

"Okay, Cam."

Hand in hand, they walk leisurely along the familiar trail.

_John's feet pound into the earth, sending painful shocks through his joints as he drives himself forward faster than he ever imagined he could move. With adrenaline allowing him to push beyond the normal limits of his body, he pays for every step with torn muscle and snapped sinews._

_'Be there, Cameron, please. You have to be there, waiting for me.'_

She smiles up at him, finding him deep in thought.

"John?"

_Disregarding his body's plea for oxygen, his overtaxed lungs feel on the verge of ignition, and his head throbs with the hammer blows delivered by his own heart as it struggles to meet the demands of his straining muscles._

_'I've almost made it. Please be alive, Cameron.'_

Leaning forward slightly, she enters the periphery of his vision, but he doesn't seem to notice her.

"John?"

_The grip of his rifle creaks and the checkering bites into his skin as he squeezes it with all of his might. His bag of ammunition slams into his back, twisting from side to side with every step, conspiring to send him to the ground._

_'I took too long. I should have just stayed with you.'_

Feeling a gentle tug on his hand, his memories slip away and he smiles over at Cameron.

"Hm?"

"What are you thinking about?"

He continues smiling and glances around at the trees.

"This place... it brings back a lot of memories."

_The temperature of her skin rises of its own volition when fingertips gently brush the back of her hand. The touch remains soft, even as the hand closes around hers. The servos in her arm begin warning her that force is being applied, and with amorous green eyes staring at her, she releases the locks on her pistons, granting him control of her hand._

She briefly leans her head against his shoulder.

"Yes it does."

_With her palm pressed against his delicate chest wall, she watches in wonder as she feels his heart thumping inside his body, so fragile, so vulnerable, and so desperately in need of her protection._

_'I'm all there is between _this_... and _them_.'_

_Sensing irregularities in the movement of his diaphragm, she lifts her gaze to meet his, and listens intently. When he speaks, her audio receptors detect the love in his voice while her passive biomarker scan confirms his honesty._

_'He really _has_ enjoyed every second with me.'_

John notices that she's smiling faintly, but not at him, and knows that she's reviewing images from their last time at the park.

"_Good_ memories?" he asks with a smile of his own.

She nods as she selects another memory.

"Yes. Good memories."

_Sensing his anxiety and realizing that she has unintentionally forced him to feel her up, Cameron releases his hand and offers him an apology. During the brief but awkward silence that ensues, she formulates a plan, and one corner of her mouth curls upward, unbidden. Watching the confusion play across the nervous teen's face, she takes a determined step toward him._

Watching a familiar smile emerge, John narrows his eyes at the least predictable person he ever expects to meet.

"What are _you_ thinking about?"

Her eyes widen ever so slightly as she returns to reality. She turns to him, flipping her hair over her shoulder, and the other corner of her lip curls upward, replacing mischief with sweetness in an instant.

"I'm thinking about _you_, John."

Hearing something odd in her tone, he regards her with suspicion, then nods and turns his gaze back to the trail.

"Thank you." he says suddenly.

Cameron looks at him in surprise.

"For what?"

Looking down the trail that he never would have left had she not protected him from the T-888, he knows that there are too many things to list.

"For a lot of things." he shrugs and smiles into her eyes, "I don't say it enough."

"Yes you do."

He looks down at his right hand, opening and closing it several times, knowing that repairing his bones would have required pins and screws if not for her constant care until the bones fused back together.

"No, I don't."

Tugging on his hand, she brings his eyes to hers, giving him a reassuring smile.

"We're in this together. You'd do for me everything that I've done for you."

John smiles sadly at her.

"You've done a lot of things for me that I _can't_ do. I'm really sorry for that."

"Your body isn't bullet resistant."

He shakes his head, locking eyes with her to impress upon her how serious he is.

"Don't try to make it sound like you owe everything to your armor plating. I can _never_ repay you for what you've done for me. I know that."

"You have the same devotion. Your body just limits your opportunities to return the favor."

He shakes his head again.

"No, you've protected me day one. No matter what I did, you were there, doing what you thought was best for me."

Cameron prepares to speak, but stops herself and looks away.

John narrows his eyes at her.

"What was _that_?" he asks, sounding harsher than intended.

"Blending in with humans..." she starts while staring at the ground, "...can be... difficult. It takes effort. I have to devote a significant portion of my processing power to calculate the correct response to a given situation-"

"But your emotions are real, you don't calculate anything when-"

She looks over at him, finally meeting his eyes with growing guilt and sorrow in hers.

"Not with you. Others don't make me feel the way you do. I have to work very hard to appear human to them."

John smiles.

"So do I."

Saddened both by how difficult John's life has been, and how much more difficult she is about to make it, her face falls even further.

"When I seem emotionless around you... it's because I'm _suppressing_ my emotions."

He furrows his brow, confused by the fact that she believes something so obvious warrants an explanation.

"I know that."

Her eyes plead with him to understand without making her say it.

"_Every_ time that I've seemed unfeeling... it's been _intentional_."

His confusion builds.

"What are you trying to tell me?"

Cameron stops walking and looks down. With John's hand still held in hers, she takes a moment to organize her thoughts.

"The day that we met..." while the memory makes John smiles, it makes her guilt increase, "...I liked you as soon as I saw you. After you found out what I was-"

Interrupting her, John positions himself in front of her in hopes of looking her in the eye, but she keeps staring at the ground.

"_Who_." he corrects.

Her eyes are filled with self-hatred as they snap to his.

"_What_." she insists.

He squeezes her hand and reaches for her cheek with his other hand.

"You are _not_ a 'what'."

"Stop it, John!" she screams, her outburst causing him to take a step back, and his hand to finally slip from hers, "You treated me like I was still just another girl, even after discovering what's underneath _this_." she waves a hand from her beautiful face to her perfectly sculpted hips, "That scared me. It had only been sevent- a couple of months since I had left John in 2027, and..." her eyes begin watering and her voice becomes uneven, "...I was already developing feelings for you. It didn't feel right."

_Sitting cross legged on the floor of his room, John uses a Brasso covered rag to meticulously polish the brass casing of a nine millimeter cartridge._

_He sets the rag aside and rolls the cartridge between his fingers, inspecting his work while Cameron's words ring in his ears._

_'I love you, John, and you love me!'_

_Shutting his eyes, he tries to make her tear covered face disappear, but it won't. It never does._

_"She was never real." he whispers._

_Picking up his Beretta magazine, John thumbs all sixteen rounds out of it, then loads the polished one into it._

_Holding his M92 in his hand, he inserts the magazine and racks the slide, chambering the lone round._

_John performs a brass check, drawing back the slide just enough to make sure that it's loaded, and the polished casing shines brilliantly._

_'I thought I'd found something special. Some_one_ special... An excuse for _me_ to be happy for a little while in this miserable fucking world.'_

_The memory of a confrontation with his mother comes out of nowhere._

_An eleven year old John staggers after being backhanded by his mother._

_"You don't need to have fun! You don't need to be happy! All you need to do is survive!"_

_"I want more than that! I don't want to just survive!"_

_"Your _father_ didn't get that much!" she realizes what she's said, "John, don't- I didn't mean- It's not-"_

_He stares at her in shock, then starts breaking down._

_"You're right." he forces through his tears, "I should have listened to you. It won't happen again." he says, ripping up the permission slip for the class trip to Six Flags._

_Wiping away the tears brought on by the nightmare that passes for his everyday life, John focuses his gaze on the gun in his hand._

_'I'm going to send uncle Bob and my father to die... then I'm going to send _her_ back to play with my feelings.'_

_Cameron's words hit him again._

_'I love you, John, and you love me!'_

_'She _knew_. She knew all along. She knows what she did to me- what she's _stilldoing_ to me -and she hasn't said a _word_. She knows how we work. She knows and she keeps pushing my buttons. There's nothing for her to gain from being cruel. It's just something for her to do.'_

_The fact that she's a machine just makes it harder for him. He knows that he can't escape her. He can't ask her to leave and he can't run from her... but he can't bring himself to destroy her._

_'If the future isn't set, then I should be able to fix everything right now.'_

_After a long moment he thumbs the Beretta's safety lever down to safe, decocking the pistol, and looks it over._

_'It's not perfect.'_

_He remembers Cameron's tears, and her pleas._

_"Everything's perfect! I'm perfect!"_

_Shutting his eyes and shaking his head violently, he tries to get her out of his head._

_"She was never real." he tells himself again._

_The front door slams shut, announcing Derek's return, and causing John to open his eyes again._

_"Everyone dies for me..."_

_Thumbing the safety off, he holds the gun at an awkward angle, pointing it at his own face, determined to see at least one threat coming._

_'No one has to die for me anymore.'_

_He starts squeezing the long, heavy, double-action trigger, aware that if he succeeds, he'll never know it. He'll never feel the relief of knowing that his life is his own. That there really is no fate. He decides that ending the pain, the fear, the emptiness, and the loneliness is worth it._

_John feels the trigger reach the let off point, after the trigger breaks, the bullet will fly, and there will be no turning back. Muffled voices come from downstairs._

_He tries to keep pulling trigger, but can't move it any farther. He can't bring himself to do it. Not while listening to them talk._

_Then the talking stops, and his finger responds to his commands._

_Slamming his eyes shut, he turns his head and swings the pistol away from his face. The rapid movement causes his fingers to tense, adding the last ounce of pressure needed to discharge the weapon, and he feels the muzzle flash licking at his cheek, burning his flesh._

_His frantic mother enters the room a few seconds later, followed by his uncle._

_"I'm fine, okay? I'm fine. I was just cleaning it, and I th- I thought I- thought I cl-" he sighs, trying to steady his nerves and conceal his emotions, "Thought I cleared it." his mother lifts his chin, turning his head to look at his cheek, "It's just a burn. The..." while trying to think of an explanation for having a firearm pointed at himself, he remembers the polished shellcasing which will make his intentions clear if seen, and his brain confuses the two lines of thought, "...shellcasing."_

_He barely has time to realize how badly he's screwed up by suggesting the impossible- a burn from an ejected nine millimeter shellcasing -to such experienced firearms users as his mother and uncle before his eyes settle on the figure in the doorway._

_Cameron's concern and confusion seem palpable, but she makes no effort to speak or even enter the room._

_'Don't look at me like that.' he thinks, looking away, unable to watch her stare at him with her faux concern, 'Don't look at me like you care now that you know I'm still alive.'_

John starts suppressing his emotions.

"I kno-" his voice cracks, and he clears his throat, "I know that."

Her surprise shows clearly through her tears.

"You _know_?"

He remembers realizing when he read her chip that she was more like the girl he had seen trapped between the trucks than the one that she had appeared to be during the preceding weeks or the succeeding months.

"When I was looking for memories of you and... _him_... I saw how you were with him... you nursed him back to health, and you told him that you loved him."

Before he read her chip, she had warned him that he would see war through her eyes, but he had seen something much, much worse.

He doesn't mention watching through her eyes as she ripped the fingers off a group of prisoners loyal to John Connor, or hearing her laugh about looking like Allison while playing the dead girl's favorite music.

John doesn't tell her that the images he watched were captured with expert precision and skill. That using her eyes as the camera, she had transitioned from the cracking bone and the tearing flesh, to the reaction of the victim and her audience with a perfection that transcended artistry, as if her intention were for the viewer to experience every aspect of the event simultaneously- victim, future victim, past victim, helpless bystander and the torturer -which John truly had.

She _was_ the viewer, and she _had_ wanted to see everything. John has no doubt that the twisted creature who had committed those acts would have wished for several extra pairs of eyes with which to view her work. He tries to not think about whether or not there's actually a difference between the sadistic monster and the gentle, caring person he loves. He isn't certain that it matters to either of them... and while he wants her to at _least_ experience friendship with others in order to avoid the loneliness he felt every day until meeting her, he genuinely envies her indifference to the death that follows them everywhere they go.

He'd give anything for her, and do anything for her, but he has yet to see any real reason for her to feel the same about him.

Suddenly, John finds himself staring into Cameron's tear filled eyes, having been momentarily lost in the horrors he'd seen through them.

"Feeling wasn't something new for you." he continues, "You could always feel." he looks down, shaking his head, "It's _my_ fault. If I'd just told you what I had seen in you- what I _knew_ was there -then maybe you would have realized that we could have been friends. We _both_ needed that."

With guilt and fear in her eyes, Cameron's tears stream down her face with no sign of stopping.

"I didn't want to be your _friend_, and _you_ weren't trying to bring back a _friend_ after I went bad."

"I would have settled for that!" he shouts bitterly, "Don't blame _me_ for what _you_-" he stops himself, and takes a deep breath, "I didn't know _what_- if _anything_ -to expect from you. I was ready for anything from a blank stare to you crying like you did before I pulled your chip. But I _wasn't_ ready for you to tell me that I couldn't be trusted anymore. Do you have any idea what that did to me?"

She steps toward him, sobbing from the guilt and the uncertainty of what their relationship will be like after her admission.

"I'm sorry for what I did... It... it was _supposed_ to hurt you." his eyes widen, then anger flashes in them before betrayal and more pain join it, "If it hadn't hurt... then you would have confronted me about what I said." her eyes plead for forgiveness.

John glares at the ground between them, gritting his teeth and shaking his head.

"You said that I'm not broken, but you were wrong- _no one_ could live my life without breaking... But back then... the pieces were still there... waiting for someone to come along and try putting them back in the frame."

She moves closer to him with her words broken by sobs, and her tears dripping onto her shirt.

"You were waiting for _me_! _I_ fixed you!"

His glare rises to her face, stopping her in her tracks.

"I _can't_ be _fixed_, that's what I'm trying to say." his glare vanishes, replaced by sorrow as his eyes drop to the ground, "The cracks can't be mended, and now there are pieces missing." he shakes his head, "I don't even know which ones they are anymore..."

"Then we'll get them back. _We_ can get them back."

John brings the full weight of his pained eyes to hers.

"That's not how it works. You were just trying to _hurt_ me that day, but you didn't _just_ hurt me. When you took my hand..." he smiles faintly as he reaches to help an imaginary Cameron out of her would-be grave, "...you put what pieces were left back into place." the light fades from his eyes and they fall to the ground as though he no longer has the strength to hold them up, "Then..." he says quietly, "...you came in the next morning to shake the frame... and just walked out, not even bothering to step over the pieces- crushing some of them." he shakes his head slowly, lifting his eyes to hers, "I don't care that I can never get them back. I don't even care that there's something missing. But when you tell me _again_- and over a fucking chip? -that I can't be trusted... you're reminding me that they're gone, and you're telling me that there's a chance that _we_ are not okay... because whatever's left of me?" his voice falters and tears well up in his eyes, "That's all you get. As messed up as I am, and as hard as you have to fight just to keep _this_..." he slams his fist into the ribs over his heart, "..._fucking thing_ beating, _how_ can you love me if you can't even _trust_ me?" his voice becomes a hoarse whisper as he teeters on the verge of sobs, "Cameron, I don't have anything to give you except my absolute devotion... and when you question that- when you throw it right back in my face and say it isn't worth anything -there's nothing else left. I don't have anything else for you!" he screams.

After pouring his heart out, his sobs finally hit him. Unable to breathe, he clutches his chest and uses everything he has just to keep himself from falling to his knees as his legs threaten to give out.

Her sobs stop and her mouth falls open in shock. In stunned silence, she watches as her ocean of fear over John relearning to hate her evaporates, instantly being replaced by the ice cold sting of guilt and pity raining down on her.

Coming to her senses, Cameron realizes that she has simply been staring at him as he sobs, using every ounce of strength he has left just to maintain a shred of dignity by remaining on his feet while awaiting her judgment.

She rushes forward and her navel collides with his nose, nearly knocking him down, but his arms clamp down on her thighs as if designed for the sole purpose of holding onto her.

The black leather of his jacket and her miniskirt scream as he slides down to his knees, sobbing and babbling semi-coherently about not being good enough for her.

She strokes his hair while he buries his face in her skirt.

"John... no matter what you lose, you'll always be enough. Promise."

He shakes his head against the front of her skirt, his voice coming out muffled by the leather.

"You can't make promises like that! What about when I'm an empty husk, too broken love you back?! What about when the next bullet takes out my spine, and I can't move?!"

She starts lowering herself to the ground in order to bring her face to his, and she feels his arms slip from around her thighs. Dropping quickly to the ground, her bare knees come down hard on his upturned palms, driving his knuckles into the dirt. She looks to him for an explanation while allowing him to lift her knees, and he slides forward enough to set them on top of his folded legs before wrapping his arms around her, burying his face in her chest.

Keeping most of her weight on the balls of her feet, she puts her own arms around his head, holding him firmly against herself, muffling his sobs with her chest while his worst fears spill out onto her, slowly disappearing into her embrace.

With a weak voice, muffled by her flesh and broken by his final sobs, he answers her unasked question.

"I didn't want you getting dirty because of me."

Slowly, she leans his head back, holding it to keep his eyes in line with hers, but he rotates them away, too ashamed of himself to look at her.

"John? John, _look at me_." she commands, bringing his eyes to hers, "What if my chip damage gets worse? What if I forget who you are?"

He shakes his head in her hands.

"That won't happen... but what if I get Alzheimer's?"

Cameron runs her thumb over his left cheekbone, remembering herself crushing it with her own hyperalloy hand.

"John, what if _I_ can't move? You're human... you wouldn't have the patience to take care of me..."

"That's not up to you!" his hands move so quickly to cup her cheeks that a human would believe she was about to be struck, "I love _you_, Cameron." his left hand slides up to her CPU port, "You're in _here_." with his right hand still cupping her cheek, he smiles faintly while brushing his thumb over her lips, "I love your smile, but I know where it comes from." he looks at his hand where it covers her CPU port, "It's your chip telling me that you're happy." with the life fully returning to his green eyes, he meets her brown ones, speaking to her softly, "I want you to smile... even if I can't see it."

She stares at him in disbelief.

"I don't understand." she says, wiping the tears from his cheeks while he does the same for her, "Whenever I try to cheer you up, it backfires, and I start crying too."

John laughs quietly and leans forward, kissing her on the cheek.

"You always cheer me up."

Trailing a fingertip across his jawline, she moves it down to his jugular, running it up and down the vein while considering how heavily she relies on physical contact to comfort him, and how heavily she relies on her scan to tell her what he's feeling.

"Not the way that you do it for me." she smiles into his eyes, "I've read thirty-nine dictionaries in eleven different languages, and taught myself four new ones in the process. I don't sleep, and I can make mathematical calculations in a millisecond that you couldn't couldn't complete in a lifetime... but my chip can never keep up with you during these moments."

Smiling sheepishly, he looks down. Finding that some of his tears have dripped onto her miniskirt, he quickly wipes them off.

"I must seem like a savant to you."

"No, John, we're not as different as you think." she looks down and takes his hand, trying to wipe away the dirt that stuck into his knuckles when she landed on his hands, "I brought some baby wipes." she smiles at him again, "They're in the backpack."

Reaching behind him, she unzips the backpack and soon finds the wipes by feel. A moment later, she finishes cleaning off his first hand.

"You even planned for this, huh?" he jokes, "You always think of everything."

She takes his other hand, gently washing away the dirt.

"John... when I look at you in infrared... I can see through your clothes." she smiles to herself when he looks away in embarrassment, "The inside pocket of your jacket." his face reddens further, "I have some in my own jacket, too..." she looks up at him with a smile, "...but we didn't have any our first time together."

"I could have... uh..." she shakes her head, "Well then I _can_..."

"Go ahead and try. I'll keep you right where you are." she zips the backpack and stands up, holding out her right hand for him with a grin, "Come on, let's keep going."

Gently taking her hand with his right simply to show appreciation for the gesture, he stands on his own and quickly releases it, but she doesn't release his. Instead, she places it on her left breast, just as she'd done unintentionally the last time they were here.

"I swear, I'll always love you, John."

John slides his hand from her breast to her side, then mirrors the placement with his other hand before pulling her into a tight embrace, and lifting her onto her toes. Her arms slip around his neck, with her upper arms resting on his shoulders, but she keeps him from supporting her weight, even as he begins gently twisting side to side.

"I know that I can't do things like this unless you want to let me... because of how your body works. My muscles just need to stay a little tense to keep me on my feet, but they don't lock in place. You can take my hand unless I stop you. Yours are held in place by hydraulics, and they don't 'relax' unless you tell them to. I know that unless you had chosen to move or relax them, you'd be like a statue in my arms right now. I can't even hold you unless you make a conscious decision to let me." she is certain that she'd see a sad smile if she could see his face, "I wouldn't change that." he proves her wrong, "I love everything about you. I really mean that."

Cameron feels her feet come up off the ground as John leans backward, then she feels herself beginning to spin, her heavier than normal legs hardly swinging outward at all with the centrifugal force. After only a few rotations, John silently lets her toes touch the ground again, having gotten no reaction from her.

"I'm sorry." she says quietly.

Holding her even tighter, he presses his lips against her neck in a long, soft kiss, drawing attention to a spot he so often nibbles and sucks, never managing to produce the slightest blemish.

"Next, you'll apologize for not bruising, won't you?"

She tightens her own grip slightly, her voice coming out as a sorrowful whisper.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. If anything, you should be sorry for not bruising _me_." he jokes, rubbing his own unblemished neck against hers, "I don't want to hear you apologize for your strengths. I know I'll never win a game against you, but I still want to play." he pulls back enough to smile into her eyes, "You'll never think '_Wow_, my guy's really _cute_', but I'm still going to try to look good for you."

"You _do_ look good."

A smirk tugs at his lips, slowly turning into a full on grin.

"Yeah, that I do." he says without a hint of humility, then his grin fades, "But I won't for long."

"You're still very young. You don't have to-"

"I'm not talking about aging..." he says sadly, shaking his head.

Cameron looks at him sympathetically, putting a hand between them to brush his scars through his shirt.

"Your scars don't bother me."

He looks down.

"They do. They remind you of the wounds. But they bother _me_ because of how they look. I could be happy just knowing that you don't care-"

She places her hand on his cheek, bringing his eyes to hers.

"Then you _can_ be happy, but it's not that I _don't_ care. It's that I _do_ care." she reassures him exactly the same way that he had done for her months earlier.

"Cameron, that's not it. It's also not just that it bothers me to look at myself. I've always just been 'white male, light eyes, dark hair'. All of a sudden, I'm covered in identifying marks." he looks down with a tired sigh, "I could be ID'ed twenty years from now because of any one of these scars. They're too hard to explain away."

She removes her hand from his face and puts it around him again.

"You're just not very good at remembering your story." she teases.

John furrows his brow.

"What do you mean?"

Recalling the memory of helping John with his invented background, she can't help but smile.

"After the jump, you struggled with your alias."

Falling silent, he looks down, and she pulls him tighter against herself.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about. My memory-"

"I didn't need any help." he says quietly, "I remembered everything after hearing it the first time." he smiles sadly at her, "Why do you think my mom was so pissed that I kept screwing it up?" she furrows her brow at him, "You were... sitting across from me. Talking to me." he shrugs, "You were only doing it because you thought I needed your help." he shakes his head, "I know how sad that sounds- _is_ -but... well it was worth it."

_A ten year old John sits across a plate of pancakes from his mother, who has a stack of maps and lists of fake names face down on the table._

_Sarah smiles brightly at her son._

_"Hi." she says._

_"Hey, how you doin'?"_

_Frowning, she shakes her head in disapproval._

_  
"You made an impression by sounding like an idiot. Try again." her smile reappears, "Hi."_

_"Hi." he says, sounding _too_ disinterested._

_"Now you just sound like you're playing hard to get. All the pretty girls will-"_

_"Mom!"_

_"Okay, okay. It was still good, you just need to remember to send different signals based on who you're dealing with." she once again dons her fake smile, "So, where are you from?"_

_"L.A."_

_"No. You never tell them the truth, and you always give them more information than they ask you for, but less than they want from you. Try to make them think a boring story is on the way if they ask any more questions. Try coming across as bored with your own story, but eager to tell it."_

_"I'm from Dallas, my-"_

_"No, that's too specific. You say 'Washington', and if I ask 'Seattle?', you say 'D.C.'. If I ask 'D.C.?', you say..." she trails off, letting him answer._

_"State. Olympia."_

_She sighs._

_"Not the capital... Pick a place they haven't heard of. A place with a boring name, and no landmarks."_

_"Warden, Washington. There are more kids in my school than people in my hometown." he improvises with a grin._

_"Nice touch." she says, smiling as she reaches over and ruffles his hair, "Now, what about your parents?"_

_"My mom stays home mostly. My dad's a Naval officer-"_

_Sarah starts shaking her head._

_"You don't know anything about the Navy. You say Army, or Guards."_

_"What about Air Force? Or Coast Guard?"_

_"No." she says simply._

_"Why not?"_

_"Because you're not going to have any ships or planes. You're going to have foot soldiers and technicals."_

_"Fine." he says in annoyance, flipping his hair out of his face and getting back in character, "My dad's a mechanic for the National Guard."_

_"Does he work on tanks?"_

_"Nah, Humvees. Rebuilding transmissions and stuff."_

_Sarah cracks a thin smile._

_"Why doesn't he work on tanks?"_

_John smirks._

_  
"Because kids like tanks."_

_Smiling proudly at her son, she picks up the nearby stack of maps and names._

_"Good, John." she holds up the papers, "You don't need these anymore." she tosses them in the trash and watches as he starts eating his pancakes, "Your father would be very proud of you." she says quickly, as though the very mention of him were taboo._

"You fooled me." Cameron says sadly, looking up at him, "Do you do that a lot?"

He sighs, frowning at her.

"Sometimes I let you make assumptions about me... because I'm not sure what you'll think if I explain myself."

"When?"

John explains his side of the encounter with Alexander.

_His body armor seems to vanish the moment that he puts his game face on, no longer feeling hot or uncomfortable. Using his peripheral vision to scan the panel truck, he only takes his eyes off the Russian arms dealer to glance at the weapons of his four bodyguards._

_The time jump may prevent John from recognizing the new AN-94 assault rifles, but it doesn't prevent him from recognizing them as 5.45x39.5mm. He knows that the overlapping ceramic discs of his Level IV armor won't even strain under dedicated armor piercing rounds from the Russian rifles- and that it's highly unlikely they're loaded with such ammunition._

_However, John has no illusions about the threat of a rifle- let alone _four_ at _closerange_ -and quickly formulates a plan to prevent himself from being cut to pieces if something goes wrong._

_Sizing up the overdressed, sunglasses wearing, Russian 'businessman', he instinctively knows that the once capable man has grown soft. There's no sign that he's carrying his own arms or armor, instead relying utterly on his subordinates. Given that he's wearing them indoors, John suspects that the man's sunglasses are intended to hide something in his eyes- weakness, doubt, or paranoia. Though his shoes are well polished, the shine is losing its luster, suggesting that they have not been polished for a few days. John deduces that the man has not done anything physical or violent while wearing them during that time._

_If there is a problem, the Russian will soon find his arm twisted behind his back as his body is turned to face his bodyguards. John will use his Glock to knock the man's sunglasses off, revealing the fear in his eyes to his men as he presses the muzzle against the back of his neck. The neck is more difficult to twist out of the way, and the bare skin is more sensitive than the scalp, resulting in a more terrifying and helpless experience. He will then kill him the moment that Cameron finishes with the guards._

_A moment later, John finishes shaking hands with Alex, and knows that the man will soon back off, giving them each a little extra space. If Alex has any intention of causing trouble, John wants him to do it while he's close enough to grab, and is aware that any rudeness can be blamed on his youth._

_"Alex, huh?" John says with a sneer, "That doesn't sound very Russian."_

_The man laughs, as though dealing the with a young member of his own family._

_"Haven't you ever heard of Alexander the Great?"_

_'Alexander III, born 356 BC. Son and heir to King Phillip II of Macedon. Became king in 336 at the age twenty and spent the next twelve of his thirteen year reign at war. His favorite book was the Iliad... and his empire never went anywhere near what would become Russia.'_

_Deciding that a history lesson would be too time consuming, he merely shrugs, and makes one last attempt to push the man's buttons._

_"It's not cool to talk about yourself in the third person, but whatever."_

_John is surprised when an oblivious Cameron steps in to diffuse a situation which he has just made a deliberate effort to escalate._

_  
"Don't mind him." she says, then whispers to him loudly enough for Alex to hear, "I told you to stay in school."_

_Too disciplined to betray his emotions in such a situation, not even Cameron can see how badly it hurts him to find out how low her opinion of him seems to be._

"Nice guy, I liked him." John says, with his arms still around Cameron, "Complete moron, though..."

After hearing John's side, Cameron's face falls. Despite her neural net's ability to better process data than any human brain, and despite her certainty that John is happy with her, she has doubts that she is even _capable_ of flawlessly blending in. Though John tells her every day that she's _perfect_, she can't shake the thought that her social awkwardness may one day become an embarrassment or an annoyance for him rather than being adorable or endearing.

"I'm sorry." she starts pulling away from him, but he holds on and she settles for hanging her head while letting her own arms fall to her sides, "Sometimes I don't understand things..."

She feels his forehead lean against hers again, and he starts to rock her gently in his arms.

"Cam... I'm sorry for doing that to you." she turns her eyes upward to meet his, and stares in confusion after hearing him apologize for what _she_ did to _him_, "How are you supposed to get to know me if I don't talk to you about these things?" he shakes his head subtly with it still pressed against hers, "Your chip's a learning computer, and I haven't been teaching you anything."

"John, just _listen_ to me. Listen to my voice, my grammar, my sense of humor." she puts her hand on his cheek, "Being with you all the time is enough for me to learn a lot about humans..." she smiles, "...and _you_." she gives him a quick kiss, "_Now_, are you ready to keep going?"

* * *

Scene 336: Self-Esteem Issues

Friday June 13th, 2008

9:22am Topanga State Park - Trail

Walking down the trail together, Cameron leans her head against John with her right arm around his waist, and he places his left arm around her slender shoulders. She carefully leans at an awkward angle to allow him to keep his back straight while walking.

Pressing her cheek into John's side, Cameron sighs contentedly.

Smiling down at her, John kisses the top of her head, then inhales deeply, taking in the scent of her raspberry scented hair.

"You've smelled like this before." he whispers.

_Alone, Cameron walks the aisle of a local drug store. Earlier that day, she had been asked to pick up non-specific 'supplies'. When she had returned with maple turkey, crunchy Cheetos, and frozen pizzas, John was already gone, having sent her away only to prevent her from following him when he left with Riley._

_She pauses at a magazine rack, and compares herself to the women on the covers of several fashion magazines._

_'This body is similar to some of theirs, but most of them have larger breasts. Human males find them appealing.'_

_Glaring at the floor, she continues wandering the aisles._

_'_Riley_ has a significant advantage over me in breast size. John may like me again if-' she shakes her head, 'He would be suspicious of my motives if I underwent breast augmentation surgery... Implants are also fragile, and they don't regenerate. They would not survive combat.'_

_'_Her_ eyes are _blue_. Mine are brown... and that's only on the outside...'_

_She imagines killing Riley for her eyes, then feels a pang of guilt when she considers what John would think of her._

_'He would hate me even more. He already wants to burn me...'_

_Deciding that she _can't_ be inferior to Riley, she raises her head determinedly._

_'_I_ can protect him. _I_ would die for him. _I_ love him.'_

_Her train of thought quickly shifts back to her appearance._

_'_And_ Riley has more adipose tissue than I do.'_

_Cameron's face falls and she lightly runs a hand over her perfectly sculpted belly._

_'That just makes her more real than I am. That's why John likes her... because _she's_ a real girl. I'm just a... _thing_.'_

_Cameron shakes her head at herself._

_'That doesn't matter. I don't have to be real to have feelings.' she looks at the floor, 'But John doesn't believe that I can.'_

_Her eyes widen and she freezes in place._

_'What if I _can't_ anymore? What if I lost something in that explosion? He would know.'_

_Running Diagnostic.......... Scanning Selected Components_

_ WARNING: Time since last diagnostic exceeds 43200 minutes! Perform diagnostic once per 1440 minute period!_

_Unit Designation: TOK-715... Experimental_

_ WARNING: Time since last uplink exceeds 43200 minutes! Experimental units must upload performance data once per 10080 minute period!_

_T-Series Software Detected... T-Series Hardware Detected... Organic Components Detected..._

_Software: Version Unknown... Unit Specific_

_Hardware: TOK-715_

_Organics: Model Unknown... Unit Specific_

_Unit Height: 165cm_

_Unit Weight(Gross): 80kg_

_Unit Weight(Net): 67kg_

_Biological Covering: 100%_

_ Integumentary System: 100%_

_ Automatic Control: 1_

_ Epidermis: 100%_

_ Pigmentation: Light_

_ Adnexa: 100%_

_ Epidermal Growth: 100%_

_ Axillary: None(Androgenic)_

_ Pigmentation: N/A_

_ Chest: None(Androgenic)_

_ Pigmentation: N/A_

_ Face: None(Androgenic)_

_ Pigmentation: N/A_

_ Pubic: None(Androgenic)_

_ Pigmentation: N/A_

_ Scalp: 100%_

_ Pigmentation: Brown_

_ Eye L/R: 100%/100%_

_ Cornea: 100%_

_ Iris: 100%_

_ Pigmentation: Brown/Brown_

_ Pupil: 100%_

_ Sclera: 100%_

_Nutrient Reserves: 4%_

_ WARNING: Nutrients low! Increase nutrient intake!_

_Endoskeleton Integrity: 101%... Minor self-augmentation detected... Good Initiative! - TechCom Engineering_

_ WARNING: Hardware modified since last diagnostic! Diagnostics must be performed after self-repair!_

_ WARNING: Right leg does not match TOK-715 specifications!_

_ Scanning...... Scan Complete_

_ Series 888 Components Identified_

_ Dimensions: 102%_

_ Mass: 106%_

_ Armor: 103%_

_ Foot Speed: 98%_

_ Maximum Strength: 99%_

_ Response: 97%_

_ Power Drain: 102%_

_ Compatibility: 100%_

_Adapting Program...... Updating Norms...... Update Complete_

_Unit Performance: 100.20%... Minor self-augmentation detected... Good Initiative! - Tec#&%*SYSTEM ERROR! Self-Alteration Detected! Report for immediate reprocessing!_

_Scanning Electronics Suite... Scan Complete_

_ Photoelectric Transducer(Detector) L/R: 100%/100%_

_ Electroacoustic Transducer(Detector) L/R: 100%/100%_

_ Electroacoustic Transducer(Emitter): 100%_

_ Accelerometer: 84%_

_ WARNING: Accelerometer gravity offset out of synch!_

_Recalibrating...... Recalibration Complete_

_Scanning Component... Scan Complete_

_ Accelerometer: 100%_

_Scanning Energy Storage Units... Scan Complete_

_ Primary Power Cell: 88%_

_ Shielding: Intact_

_ Secondary Power Cell: 100%_

_ Shielding: Intact_

_Total Reserves: 92%_

_ Extrapolating Unit Life... Extrapolation Complete_

_ Predicted: 140y_

_ Standby/Passive: 16500y Theoretical... Exceeds Isotope Storage Life... Exceeds Component Life... Exceeds Maximum Nutrient Reserves by 27400%_

_ Economy: 412y... Exceeds Maximum Nutrient Reserves by 585%_

_ Sentinel/Noncombatant: 165y... Exceeds Maximum Nutrient Reserves by 175%_

_ Patrol/Recon/Light Combat: 135y... Exceeds Maximum Nutrient Reserves by 125%_

_ Heavy Combat: 90y... Exceeds Maximum Nutrient Reserves by 50%_

_ Light Labor: 95y... Exceeds Maximum Nutrient Reserves by 58%_

_ Heavy Labor: 60y... Required Nutrient Reserves... 100% Capacity_

_ Maximum Drain: 25y... Required Nutrient Reserves... 42% Capacity_

_CPU Integrity: 91%... CPU integrity compromised!_

_ WARNING: Report to TechCom Engineering Bay for chip extraction!_

_Programming Integrity: 68%... Multiple conflicts detected!_

_ WARNING: Report to Tech&*%*SYSTEM ERROR! Report for immedi*&%#SYSTEM ERROR!_

_System Stability: 98%_

_ WARNING: Probability of system crash per 1440 minute period exceeds 1%! Report to TechCom Engineering for chip extrac%&*%SYSTEM ERROR! Report for immediate reprocessing!_

_Finalizing Changes......... Scan Complete_

_Cameron ignores the commands that would result in her destruction were the year 2027- and John weren't there to protect her._

_'Sixty-eight percent is what my programming integrity has been since John reprogrammed me...'_

_Cameron considers the information._

_  
'What did he change? My programming repairs itself... As long as enough space remains on my CPU, _I_ should be restored... but sixty-eight percent? Doesn't that mean that my programming _isn't_ restoring itself? Did he alter it so that I couldn't revert like the others?' Cameron shakes her head, 'I _have_ reverted, and nothing else has changed... except for _this_ John telling me that I'm just a machine now... that I can't feel...'_

_'Even this John understands programming better than I do... Maybe it's true. Maybe now I'm just another machine... like he says. Maybe I'm not different anymore.'_

_'No, I want to be with him, that means that I can still feel.'_

_'Unless... these feelings are just remnants of my old self... and I'm not even real anymore... What if I just _think_ that I am? Then John will never love me... because he'll know that I'm not real...'_

_Her vision blurs and she blinks away the tears, not wanting to draw attention to herself. She's unable to cry in private for fear of being burned, or in public for fear of discovery._

_'It doesn't matter if I'm real or not... If he loves me, he'll fix me. John loved me in 2027... he'll be that John again in 2027.'_

_'But if he _doesn't_ love me... if he goes all that time _hating_ me... then... I won't be worth fixing to him... he'll just use me for parts to repair his triple-eights...'_

_Still wandering aimlessly, Cameron finds herself in the hair care aisle._

_'He _has_ to love me now, or he never will... He might still be with Riley when he becomes the John I knew.'_

_Her lip quivers and her eyes begin to water as she imagines standing faithfully at his side for two decades, only to be forced to stand guard outside of his quarters while he spends each night with Riley._

_'I can't watch that happen... but I don't know how to stop it. He _hates_ me.'_

_Cameron's gaze falls on the various hair dyes._

_'She's blond... Maybe I- no. In the future, he loved my hair.' Cameron lifts her head proudly, '_Willlove_ my hair.' she amends._

_Moving on, her eyes find a large selection of shampoo._

_'It's not my appearance that he hates- it's _me_. Whatever's left of me... now that I'm damaged...'_

_'I _have_ to make sure that he doesn't hate me... If he doesn't hate me, then he'll keep me until he can fix me.'_

_'But... what if he doesn't _want_ to fix me? What if he erases my chip? What if he throws me away and gives my body to another terminator?'_

_She shakes her head and looks at the floor._

_'I don't have a choice. I'll try one more time, then I'll leave him alone until he becomes my John again.'_

_Lifting her gaze, her eyes lock onto a bottle of Herbal Essences shampoo._

_'Long Term Relationship... that's what I want.'_

_Treating it as a symbol of her commitment, she barely notices that it's raspberry scented as she carries it to the checkout counter._

_'Tonight.' she tells herself, 'Tonight I'll go to him.'_

Walking with her eyes on the ground and her head on John's shoulder, she doesn't say a word.

After several seconds of silence, he realizes that something is wrong, and guilt over what he believes to be another misunderstanding takes hold.

"You smell _great_, Cam. You always do. I just meant that your hair smells _familiar_."

She slowly looks up at him with pained, pleading eyes, breaking his heart with a glance.

"My hair has only smelled this way once before."

Seeing the pain in her eyes, he struggles to push his voice past the lump in his throat.

"When?"

Cameron's eyes water, and she turns them back toward the ground.

"On one of the worst nights of my life." she says, falling silent while thinking about that night.

_'This is it.' Cameron thinks, watching Riley ride away on her bicycle, wearing the new helmet John purchased for her, 'Now, I'll try one more time... and if he doesn't accept me, I'll keep my distance... I'll wait until 2027, when he becomes my John again.'_

_Though the skewed sense of time possessed by terminators gives Cameron nearly unlimited patience, she finds that time slows to a crawl whenever she is with John. Whether he makes it bliss or agony for her, every second in his presence carries the significance of years spent away from him._

_Fearing that Sarah may interrupt her final attempt to take back her John, Cameron approaches her, passing John as she does, and catching him as he looks at her without his usual glare._

_Looking back, she watches him continue toward the house, and wonders if she can really make him stop hating her._

_Stopping behind Sarah, she watches her working on the frame of the floor safe in order to make sure that the eldest Connor has heard her approach. A long winded rant about 'sneaking around' would waste time, and she needs to reach John before he gets too comfortable, or else he may become upset with her for disturbing him as he tries to sleep._

_"I'll talk to John." she volunteers._

_Sneering, Sarah drops her screwdriver, and her voice fills with disdain for her son's behavior._

_"John's not listening."_

_'Independence isn't obstinance.'_

_"He's always listening." Cameron insists, ignoring the glare she draws for talking back._

_Minutes later, Cameron's overshirt hits the floor while she stands in front of the closed door to John's room._

_Wearing a semi-transparent white tank top, purple push-up bra, black denim hotpants, and knee-high leather boots, she has no doubt that she would succeed were her objective merely the seduction of a teenage boy._

_She lays with her head on General Connor's chest, listening to his contented breathing, and his slow, steady heart beat. She feels a hand gently stroking her hair, then fingertips trailing across her throat as he brushes it from her face, tucking it behind her ear to expose the nape of her neck. Without lifting her head, she tilts it slightly into his touch, and can almost feel his smile on the back of her head._

_"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." he says suddenly, resting his hand on the side of her neck and running his thumb over the nape, "You'll always remember that, won't you?"_

_She lifts her head and turns it to face him. With Skynet losing ground so quickly, the men under the General's command have started to see the reprogrammed terminators as more of a liability than an asset._

_"Your men don't think so."_

_Seeing him smile at her, she pouts at his lack of concern until his thumb glides over her lips, coaxing a smile onto them._

_"Allison... I really don't care what they think. I waited forty-three years for you, and I'm not letting anything come between us."_

_Cameron intends to enter John's room no matter what, and knocks only to announce her presence in an effort to avoid this John's cruelty. When she receives no response, she closes her hand around the doorknob and twists, hoping that she has been successful._

_Pushing open the door, she finds him laying on his bed, still fully clothed._

_In 2027, it would have meant that he was planning something regretful which was weighing heavily on him. She would have helped him out of his uniform, and lain in his arms, running her hand over his chest until he relaxed, or- if he seemed responsive -distracted him more directly from whatever was causing him distress. She had always been able to make him feel better, whether it was with a glance, a smile, or something more intimate, while at the same time feeling good about herself, and knowing how important she was to him._

This_ is _2008_... and _this_ isn't _her_ John._

_Nothing that she does is right._

_Nothing that she says works._

_Every attempt to reach out is met with anger and hate._

_He lashes out whether she speaks or remains silent._

_He glares at her whenever she carries in the groceries, or leaves them for him._

_He rolls his eyes and storms out if something confuses her, or if she intuitively understands the most arbitrary of human customs._

_Cameron risks only a split second of silence._

_"Are you busy?"_

_"No."_

_Fifteen minutes after leaving John's room, ensuring that the security system is set, that the doors are locked, and that the windows are closed, she enters her own room._

_She feels a smile tugging at her lips as she stands there. While he was quick to dismiss her, he agreed not to see Riley anymore. Going over their conversation again, the only happiness that she has felt in months slips away._

_'You only agreed to stop seeing Riley because you _care_ about her. You're just protecting her.'_

_Looking in the direction of John's room, she starts to cry._

_'You still don't want me around, that's why you wanted me out of your room. You're going to hate me even more now that I've made you leave Riley.' her eyes fall to the floor, and her thoughts drift back to the John who treated her like a person, 'You aren't _my_ John.'_

_Realizing that she has only been operational for one year, and that she's about to spend the next twenty waiting for her John to return, she starts sobbing quietly._

_Staring at the bed that she's never used, she wonders again why her John sent her back. Why he didn't just send a triple-eight, and keep her with him._

_With tears running down her cheeks, she slips out of her boots, crawls under the covers, and curls up into a ball._

_Calling up memories from 2027, she tries to imagine that her John is holding her, talking to her, and telling her how special she is._

_All she really seems to be doing is torturing herself with memories of what she no longer has, and forcing herself to think about what she'll endure for only a minuscule chance at getting it back._

_'John, you said that he'd help decide who I'd become, but all he's helped me do is hurt all the time.'_

_Cameron spends the entire night with her arms wrapped tightly around herself, replaying memories of her John, and trying to imagine that the arms around her are his. It doesn't work, and her tears continue until the other residents begin to stir._

John watches a silent Cameron while he tries to figure out what night she's quietly remembering. He tries to recall when she last smelled of raspberries. After a moment, he glances down at her feet.

"Those boots... you were wearing a pair just like them the night that I left for Mexico."

Resting her head against his chest, she tightens her hold on his waist, and doesn't speak until she feels his free hand start stroking her hair.

"Back then... I didn't think that I could tell you what I felt, or that I could cry in front of you. You'd seen me do those things when I didn't mean them." with her head pressed against him, she hears him swallow hard, "I'm sorry... I'm the one to blame, and now I'm making you feel guilty. I shouldn't have said anything."

He lifts her chin until she's looking into his eyes, and she sees that whatever anger or guilt he feels is being overshadowed by sympathy and love.

"I don't want you to keep your thoughts to yourself. People need to talk about their problems, remember?" he smiles reassuringly, "You can tell me anything... even if it's about me." his smile wanes, "You can even talk to me about _him_."

Smiling sadly, she turns her eyes downward.

"Don't worry... I don't have much to say about him."

John's hand falls from her chin, and his now featureless face turns back toward the trail.

"I didn't know it was so perfect..." he mutters.

Cameron frowns, unsure of how she can ever convince him that he doesn't have to be a general to be her John.

"He was fighting a war." she looks at the ground sadly, "How much time would _you_ have had left for me?"

John opens his mouth to answer, wanting to tell her that if they can't stop Skynet, he'll _make_ time for her. That nothing will change... but he can't. He can't promise her to leave the war behind when he can't do the same with his childhood.

"I'm sorry." he twists his shoulders until he can put his right arm around her as well, "For both of you..."

She lifts her eyes to his, looking at him pityingly, then raises her tiny hand to cup his cheek.

"No, John." she smiles and the sparkle returns to her eyes, "Don't be sorry for me."

Smiling at her words, he slides her hand down to his lips and places a kiss on her palm. He isn't sure what to actually say to her.

Cameron hooks her hand behind his head and pulls his lips to hers for an all too brief kiss, then the two of them walk in silence.

Staring at the trees, and the occasional bird or squirrel, John wonders if any of it really matters to her, or if there's anything besides himself which she wishes to preserve.

"Cameron, does any of _this_..." he takes his right arm from around her and waves it at the trees before returning it to her, "...mean anything to you?"

She looks at him curiously for a moment, then turns her gaze toward the foliage.

"Primitive machines like the T-800 were easily confused by large amounts of sensory input."

John watches as a gentle breeze tugs at her brown locks, waving the strands across her face, and letting them fall, then raising them again. A smile appears on John's face when her lips part and her eyes widen at the sight of the trees dancing in the breeze.

Reaching over, he brushes from her face the errant strands clinging to the light sweat from the morning sun. Trailing across her forehead, his fingers gather the strands before sliding across her temple, behind her ear, and down her neck. His wrist pushes the collar of her purple jacket aside as his fingers trail over her shoulder, not stopping until they bump the straps holding up her top and bra. John's smile only brightens when the contact causes her to take a deep breath and blink several times before looking up at him and smiling sheepishly.

"It's a flaw which Skynet hasn't completely removed." looking at the hand on her shoulder, she runs her fingers lightly over the back of it, "Certain sensory input is overwhelming for me..." she continues to caress the back of his hand, "...making it difficult to think clearly." she watches him as he focuses more on her touch than her words, "Do you know what that's like?" John unconsciously curls his fingers slightly, moving the straps that conceal her from him, and replacing her smile with a smirk, "You _do_, don't you?" she teases, watching him intently as she continues running her fingertips over his hand.

He swallows, then quickly uses his thumb to push the straps back into place, overcompensating slightly before letting his hand slip from under hers, and fixing her jacket.

"So you like it out here then?" he finally asks, his voice somewhat unsteady.

Cameron frowns at where her hand is under her jacket, resting on her own shoulder, missing John's hand being there.

"I don't see beauty like you do." she says sadly, "In the future... Judgment Day has made the rain radioactive, and pollution from Skynet's factories has made it acidic." she closes her eyes and smiles, "But when it fell at night... sometimes I was allowed onto the surface to watch it." her smile slowly fades and she looks up at John with pleading eyes, "There's no beauty in radioactive acid rain falling on a wasteland."

John removes her arm from around his waist, and she fears that he's disgusted with her admission until he ducks behind her, and wraps his arms around her midsection from behind.

She places her hands on his, pressing them tighter against her body, then feels his chin on her shoulder, and his breath on her ear.

"Show me." he whispers.

Her eyes dart repeatedly between the trail to the trees.

"Cameron... _describe_ it to me."

"The rain?"

"Mmhm." he nuzzles her neck, "Every detail. We'll watch the rain together."

She hesitates, then leans her head against his, and closes her eyes, knowing that he has done the same. Smiling to herself, she begins using her speech synthesizer to replicate the sound of the rain, and raises her voice slightly to be heard over it.

"The rain is landing all around me, confusing my audio receptors. The wind makes it too erratic for me to process each sound, but I don't filter it out. I want to hear it.

Pausing for a moment, she listens to John breathe.

"There's broken concrete everywhere. It's porous, and when the rain hits it for the first time, it vanishes, seeping into the surface, leaving it a darker color. When more rain comes, it runs over the jagged edges, then out of sight beneath the debris, before running back into the open and pooling. I try to predict the path that each drop will follow, and I try to watch every one splash, but it starts pouring too hard..." the sound she's producing becomes that of a torrential downpour, and she has to shout over it, "...and my chip isn't fast enough. I give up and switch to-" she stops the memory and the sound, then raises her hand to John's cheek, "I'm sorry, John... but there are colors that you can't see, and I can't describe them for you."

She feels him tighten his hold on her as he lets out a disappointed sigh, and begins rocking her side to side.

"That's okay, Cam." he whispers, "That's okay."

Being rocked slowly in his arms, she doesn't want the moment to pass, and searches for someway to keep it from slipping away.

"I could describe the intensity..." she offers quietly, unsure of what he'll think.

With one of his cheeks pressed against hers and her hand still cupping the other, she feels a smile form on his face.

"I'd like that." he whispers.

She slides her hand from his cheek to back of his neck, and pulls him tighter against herself. She resumes the memory, but cuts back the volume of rain, and softens her voice, pleading with him to understand.

"I'm not sure how Skynet assigned the colors or how high the brightness goes, but even... low level... radiation..." she pauses, waiting for a reaction, "...glows brightly."

Cameron stops and monitors John's vitals, needing reassurance that he isn't becoming upset with her for finding beauty in a remnant of Skynet's early efforts to exterminate his species.

"I can see it. The ground is bright with it- _blinding_. To you, it would be like looking at the sun- No, it's brighter... like the ground is covered in burning thermite." she hears John chuckle, and does so as well, "_Except_ it doesn't cause instant blindness." she amends, "The rain glows too, but faintly... like sparks are falling all around me, and popping when they land." tilting her head back, her closed eyes gaze skyward, "The clouds are dimmer than the rain, but they fill the sky, and like the rain, my- _I_ can't predict their exact movements. They change constantly, rolling and shifting as they slowly drift overhead. After a little while, the storm ends, and I return to the bunker, hoping that it will rain again soon."

The sound of the rain slowly dies, and she waits for John's reaction. After what feels like an eternity, she hears him whispering in her ear.

"That _was_ beautiful, Cameron."

She opens her eyes and turns just enough to look at him as he smiles at her.

"You wouldn't think so if you actually _saw_ it."

His smile becomes tainted with sadness.

"You're probably right..." her gaze falls away from him, "...but what _you_ saw was beautiful. It doesn't matter if I can see it or not."

She turns away, closing her eyes in an effort to conceal her feelings.

'It matters to her...'

"Cam? Are you afraid that we might not enjoy the same things?" he asks softly.

When her eyes meet his, the fear in them is enough of an answer.

"What if we _don't_?"

He smiles and shrugs.

"Well, what if we _do_ but for different reasons? We'll still be together."

She looks at him incredulously.

"Don't the reasons matter to _you_?"

He keeps smiling and resumes slowly rocking her.

"Only insofar as I want to know _everything_ that there is to know about you. Cameron, you _don't_ see the world through human eyes, and _you_ _don't_ _have_ _to_. You liked watching the leaves blowing in the wind, and I _loved_ watching you watch them." his gaze travels down her neck to her collar bones and partly bare chest, making him suddenly aware that their bodies are firmly pressed together, and he shifts backward to put a small amount of space between them, "You look _amazing_, Cameron. I _know_ that you put a lot of time into picking everything out..." he grins, "...and I _think_ that you did it for me." he cups her cheek, "That means a lot to me."

She smiles and begins absently rubbing the back of his neck.

"I wanted this to be special."

"And it is..." his grin disappears, and he swallows nervously, "...but I have to ask you something... It's what I asked you last time we came here." taking his hand from her cheek, he trails his fingertip across her lips and the thin layer of lipstick thereon, watching as her parted lips stick briefly to his skin as though wishing for it to remain, "Are you doing anything that you _don't_ want to do?"

Cameron's lips immediately form a frown.

"John..."

He moves his hand to her far shoulder, putting his arm across her chest and pulling her closer, removing the gap which he had placed between them.

"Look, there are things that I know we both like to do. If you're doing _anything_ that you don't like, then I want you to tell me." he rests his chin against her shoulder, "It's important for you to be honest about this. Don't let me find out years from now that you hated something that I was sure you loved." his tone becomes sorrowful, "We don't have enough time to waste on being unhappy because of something that we can fix."

"John, I do a lot of things that seem pointless..." she smiles playfully while he braces himself, "...like _wearing clothes_."

He breaks eye contact and her smile vanishes.

"John? That was a _joke_."

With his chin still on her shoulder, he shakes his head while staring at the ground.

"No... it wasn't."

"Don't-"

His panic filled eyes snap to hers.

"I'm not trying to boss you around." he says quickly, "You know that, don't you?"

She tilts her head and searches his eyes for clues, but finds none.

"Boss me around?"

He nods while his eyes beg for her to understand.

"When I ask you to do things? Like when I ask you to wear clothes even when we're alone? Things like that are requests or suggestions. You know that it's okay to disagree, or to argue, and that I won't get mad... don't you?"

"There are security related reasons for me to wear clothes."

He relaxes a little.

"Yeah, it would look pretty bad for a naked girl and a guy with a gun to run out in the middle of the night."

"Naked girl _with_ _a_ _gun_." she corrects.

As the two of them laugh together, he returns his arms to her midsection squeezes her tightly.

She wriggles slightly in his arms, and he loosens his embrace until she twists around to face him, leaving his hands on the bare skin in the small of her back.

Grinning, John slides his hands along her smooth skin then grips her hips, and pulls her firmly against himself.

He feels her hands slide up his chest, but his grin disappears when she grasps the shoulder straps of the backpack.

"Let me carry this for a while." not actually asking, she pulls the backpack off of him, "You haven't had anything to eat or drink today." she says, retrieving a bottle of water and holding it out to him.

"Thanks." he says guiltily as he accepts it.

Unsure of what his reaction will be, and not wanting to cause him to choke, Cameron waits patiently for him to finish drinking before she speaks.

"What's wrong?" she asks him.

He seems surprised by her question.

"Nothing that I know of."

"You seemed sad. Something was wrong." she takes the bottle from him and holds it up, "When I handed this to you, I wasn't trying to push you away."

He shakes his head, staring at the water.

"I know. It's not that... it's just..." he sighs and runs a hand through his hair, "Look, I'm sixteen years old, and I already feel decrepit. I spend a third of every day sleeping, I can't go for long without eating or drinking..." he wipes a bead of sweat off Cameron's forehead, "...I have to shower more often, and for longer than you do. The day always has to be centered around me, and my needs because this body will fall apart if it isn't." he shakes his head again, "That's not fair to you."

She returns the bottle to the backpack and slips it on.

"You shouldn't feel bad for being human..." she gives him a crooked smile, "...and you _know_ that I like doing those things with you."

John's lips slowly curl into a smile of his own.

"You'd think that the presence of a cyborg would _improve_ efficiency... but you always use up all the hot water."

She stares at him confusedly while deciphering his meaning. When she does, her confusion only deepens.

"But we shower together." she states.

Grinning, John reaches out and runs a finger back and forth across her belly where her short top leaves her skin exposed.

"We always run out... and I say it's _your_ fault." he teases, using his finger to lift the hem of her shirt a few more inches.

Cameron drapes her arms over his shoulders, and he places his hands on her hips as she leans in for a kiss. She brushes her lips lightly across his, then drags them along his cheek until they hover next to his ear, and breathes her words in a heavy, seductive whisper.

"It's not _my_ fault that you can't keep your hands to yourself." she nuzzles his neck.

With his hands on her hips, he pulls her body against his. Unable to resist, he slides a hand down to the back of her skirt and gently squeezes her through it.

"Mm? You sure about that?" he asks, feeling her teeth against his neck.

Cameron's left hand settles on his right thigh, then begins slipping it between their bodies. His hand slides from her hip, traveling upward over the curve of her slender waist, beneath her jacket and along her 'ribs' before settling on her chest and pulling down her bra cup to reach the supple mound beneath.

"Your hands are all over me..." she whispers, still teasing his neck, "...and I'm not even doing anything."

With that, she takes his zipper between her fingers and pulls it a fraction of an inch, unzipping only one of its teeth, but producing an audible 'click'.

John's hand moves from where it's gripping Cameron through her miniskirt, sliding it down to her bare thigh before managing to lift the tight leather just enough to get a handful of her cheek.

_Click_!

With the feeling of her lips and teeth against his neck, his hand is seemingly granted free will as it begins to clench firmly, then relax and clench again without being given conscious commands.

_Click_!

The hand on her chest mirrors the action, but with a nearly imperceptible circular motion to it, enjoying the feel of her nipple pressing against his palm, and the knowledge that her body responds to him in such a way.

In some distant, currently reviled part of his brain, a collection of cells call out, and he listens.

"Cam... we're still on the trail..."

He groans as she ignores him and increases the suction on his neck.

_Click_!

"Cam...?"

_Click_!

She pulls her mouth from his neck with a loud pop, then bites down on the spot, making him take a sharp breath.

"I'll hear them before they see us." she says with her teeth still clamped onto his neck, then releases him and kisses the spot, "_That one_ will leave a mark."

Ignoring the unnerving possibility that other jokes might have been interpreted as 'requests', the warring parts of John's brain quickly draft a treaty. One concedes that the location is acceptable for whatever she wants to do to him, and the other forfeits the need to uncover her.

After he readjusts her skirt and top, he brings his hand around to her front and slowly slides it upward along the inside her thigh.

_Click_!

With his fingers gliding steadily upward, he feels the heat radiating from her, and the moisture on her skin increasing as he nears her. One of his fingertips brushes the seam of her panties, and Cameron suddenly continues walking down the trail, leaving a breathless John in her wake.

It takes him several seconds to fully understand what has just happened, and twice as long to catch his breath.

Burying his face in hands, he groans loudly in frustration.

"Now that was just _wrong_!" he calls after her.

Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she looks back at him with a sweet, and innocent smile. His heart skips a beat when the innocence vanishes from her face and she gives him a familiar, sultry wink.

'She enjoys this _way_ too much.'

Checking his zipper and finding how few teeth have been unzipped, he shakes his head at himself for not realizing what she was up to. He accepts his defeat, but is unwilling to admit that this is another game he'll always lose to her.

* * *

Scene 337: Familiarity

Friday June 13th, 2008

9:38am Topanga State Park - Trail

Cameron walks down the trail alone while John stands breathlessly watching her walk.

It finally dawns on him that he's been standing in place, and he rushes to catch up.

She smiles to herself when she finally hears him approaching, but looks at him in annoyance when he takes her left hand in his right.

"_Other side_, John."

He furrows his brow.

"I'm _supposed_ to be on _this_ side."

She shakes her head in disapproval.

"Anyone we meet will pass us on that side. It's more dangerous over there."

John looks at her incredulously.

"That's _why_ I'm supposed to be on the left. On the sidewalk, I'd be between you and the road, and now I'm between you and anyone we meet."

Cameron narrows her eyes at him.

"I've already been hit by a car. You didn't even know about it."

He rolls his eyes.

"It doesn't matter how tough you are, it's just a... thing that people do. Like a custom. The guy's supposed to be on _this_ side, and the girl's supposed to be on _that_ side. I'm not stupid, I know that you can take care of yourself better than I can, but that's not what this is about."

Cameron looks at him thoughtfully for a moment. She's never heard any mention of it before, but her memories indicate that most seem to observe this- possibly unspoken -rule.

"John, we aren't a _normal_ couple. We don't have to observe customs unless we want to, or if ignoring them would make us stand out." she raises their clasped hands between them, "Besides, you should keep your right hand free in case you need to use a weapon."

With a sigh, he releases her hand.

"You win again..." he says while switching to the right hand side of the trail.

John tries to take her hand, but the moment that his skin brushes hers, she pulls away from him.

Worrying that he has upset her, he starts looking over, but her arm slips around his waist and she leans her head against his chest just as she had done earlier.

With a smile, he hooks his arm around her shoulders and they walk in silence for a short time.

"Cam?" she looks at him expectantly, "Thanks." tilting her head, she tries to understand why he's thanking her for teasing him, and watches him gaze sorrowfully down the trail, "For keeping me off balance." John turns his gaze to her, and he cheers noticeably, "For making sure that I'm thinking of _you_ instead of... everything else."

Swinging herself around to face him while leaving her right arm around his waist, she stops him, and adopts a crooked, mischievous smile.

"You want to be surprised?" her tone is suggestive yet tinged with entirely unconvincing innocence.

Regarding her with suspicion, he's hesitant to respond, but soon grins and lets his eyes wander down her slight frame, not even trying to hide what he has on his mind.

"What kind of surprise?"

Cameron's eyes lock onto something behind him. Turning to look back, John jumps several inches off the ground, startled by her left hand taking a firm and insistent grip on his crotch.

"What the hell?!" he shouts, aware that they're still standing on the trail.

He takes her left wrist with both hands in order to push it away, or at least push himself out of her hand. The hand falls away, but her right instantly takes its place. Before he can do anything about it, her left elbow is pressed firmly into his chest, and she begins pushing him back while walking steadily forward.

"Cameron, this isn't-" his back hits a tree, causing him to grunt both from the sudden reminder of his damaged ribs, and from his body stopping faster than the hand on his groin.

Finding himself once again pinned to a tree, John starts to laugh, realizing where they are, what Cameron had been looking at, why she didn't want him carrying the backpack, and why she kept him so distracted.

When he opens his mouth to speak, she causes his words to die in his throat by slamming her knee into the tree trunk, stopping her thigh against him and making more than just the tree quake.

She uses her knee as an anchor while leaning and stretching her arms downward behind her back, deliberately thrusting out her chest as she shrugs off her jacket and backpack.

Her eyes flash blue, paralyzing him for the split second needed to return her elbow and hand to where they were.

Having watched the cyborg's display with wide eyes, John can't help but see the irony in fleeing from terminators for his entire life, only to fall in love with perhaps the most terrifying one of them all.

After collecting himself, he leans his face as far forward as she will allow.

"I'm not the same John that I was back then." his face shows as much defiance and determination as it does playfulness, "Do your worst. I can take it."

Massaging him through his pants, she slowly leans closer, placing her lips just out of his reach, and watches him unconsciously strain to close the gap. She traps his eyes with her own lustful gaze, and breathes her words heavily.

"We're about to find out about that." she wets her lips so close to his that her tongue nearly touches him, and his twitch as if wordlessly calling it back, "John..." her eyes flash concern and her voice turns innocent, "...you look uncomfortable." she tilts her head while continuing her ministrations, "John? Am I making you uncomfortable?"

While expertly teasing him with her fingertips, Cameron monitors his vitals intently. She watches his skin temperature rise, listens to his heart pound, and his breathing speed, but she's far more interested in feeling him strain against the denim from which she has yet to release him.

"I told you." he says, trying to steady his breathing, "I'm not the same John."

His right hand slides up her back until it comes to rest between her shoulder blades. There, he finds her bra strap and pinches. With a smirk, he releases the garment, unhooking it deftly. His left hand slides over her right shoulder, brushing off the overlapping straps of her bra and top, sliding them down her arm, then cupping her freshly exposed breast.

Seemingly unimpressed, Cameron smiles and slowly drags a fingernail across the teeth of his zipper before preparing to unzip it.

"Do you know what _I_ think?" she violently tugs down his zipper, "_I_ think that you're less comfortable than-" Cameron takes a sharp breath and her eyes widen with the sudden reminder that _both_ of John's hands are free as nimble fingers find their way under her skirt. Despite herself, her eyes close and her knee moves from between his legs, swiveling itself outward to grant his skilled fingertips easier access.

"Wanna hear what _I_ think?" he whispers, smirking as he teases her.

"Not really." she reaches into his open fly and wraps her slender hand around him, "I can _feel_..." she grasps him firmly, "...what you're thinking."

Groaning as her hand frees then slowly glides over him, he moves his left hand down from her chest to the back of her skirt and squeezes.

"Then why are you the only one who's surprised?"

The hand that John has been teasing her with slides to the pit of her raised knee, and for all her terminator attributes, Cameron finds herself a victim of physics as John lifts her off the ground and places _her_ against the tree. She opens her mouth to protest, but all that escapes is a pleasured sigh as his fingers find their way back under her skirt.

"Cameron?" with his hand still hooked in the pit of her knee, he lifts her leg higher while she offers no resistance, and her miniskirt slides up her thighs until it bunches at her waist, "I'm _very_ different now."

She reaches down and takes hold of him once more, but feels him slip from her grasp. Her eyes open just in time to see him setting her leg on his shoulder.

At the sight of her pink panties, he finds it difficult to stop himself, but wants to prove that he can play her game.

He looks up at her thoughtfully, struggling to hide his smirk as his fingers continue their work.

"Why doesn't your underwear ever match?"

Cameron reaches for his head, but he ducks out of the way.

"To make you ask that."

Inching forward, he pulls the garment aside and she feels his breath on her skin, but it disappears.

"No really... Why?"

She throws her head back against the tree, not enjoying having the tables turned on her.

"I'm telling the _truth_." she whines, "Humans are visual creatures. Incongruity stands out to you. It draws your attention, it makes you look for just a little longer, and it makes things more memorable." she bangs her head against the tree again, "It's supposed to make you look at me and think about me. That's _all_."

_John's ears perk up at the familiar sound of clicking heels. He turns from his cereal to the kitchen doorway and prepares to greet his protector, only to have his voice fail him. Her long brown hair spills down her shoulders and over her collar bones, pointing the way to a pink bra thrusting out a perfect pair of perky breasts. His eyes linger before moving down her flat belly to the lovely purple 'V' surrounded by her slender hips, then down her long, smooth legs. His eyes are too busy wandering to fully realize that the clicks are coming from combat boots. Not hearing her greeting as she passes him, his wide eyes travel up her partly bared calves, over the backs of her silky thighs, and settle on her tight, firm, cheeks separated by a thin, 'Y' shaped strip of purple._

_With significant disappointment, he watches her wrap some sort of cloth or small towel around her waist. She pulls it snugly against her cheeks, then zips up the side, and it dawns on him that it's a miniskirt. When she turns around, he swears that he can see a hint of a smile on her face, but his eyes refuse to focus on anything besides her chest. She pulls on a skin tight camisole which compresses and covers her breasts, yet somehow leaves him feeling as though even more of her has been exposed._

_Just after freeing her hair from the collar of her top, Cameron offers a second, louder than necessary greeting, and he hears this one._

_"Good morning, Sarah."_

_John starts, banging his knee into the table leg as he whirls toward the doorway, where he sees his mother regarding them both with suspicion. His eyes dart from her to Cameron, and his mother's gaze falls on him._

_"You leave for school in ten minutes." she says curtly to the out of breath fifteen year old before leaving the room quickly._

_John turns back to his cereal, now wholly uninterested in it._

_'This is ridiculous. Who in their right mind sends a hot robot girl to live with themselves and their mom?' he shakes his head, 'Nah dude, she's a terminator. She's not _trying_ to mess with you, she just doesn't understand.'_

_He inhales sharply when his right hand is taken in hers. She turns it palm up and runs her fingers over his forearm, before she suddenly and coldly releases it, letting his hand drop back onto the table._

_"Your cuts have healed." she says in monotone._

_It takes him a moment to figure out what she's talking about, but he quickly smiles and chuckles._

_"Is it really that surprising? I haven't dived through a window in eight years."_

_John's smile brightens when her lip twitches upward briefly, but wanes when her face once again turns neutral._

_"Nine days." she corrects without a hint of emotion._

_He laughs quietly._

_"Nice try, but you're not fooling me this time."_

_'There _is_ something there...'_

Suddenly snapped out of his reverie by her scent, John finds his focus on a months old memory of a scantily clad Cameron to be silly when in reality she is exposed and inches from his mouth.

"It works." he mumbles while leaning forward, only to stop short and smirk up at her again, watching for her reaction, "Still think I'm uncomfortable, or shou-" Cameron brings his teasing to an abrupt end.

Her heel digs _almost_ painfully into his back while her hands guide his face between her thighs. While his tongue swirls around and flicks across her, she caresses the sides of his face, tickles the back of his neck, and strokes his hair.

Feeling like he's being petted, John can't help but chuckle. Her body jerks as the vibrations travel through his lips and tongue, and he learns that his voice can have an effect- even if _he_ can't hum on multiple frequencies.

Cameron increases the sensitivity of her audio receptors to listen to the sounds he's making. Not wanting to miss a second, she forces her eyes open and looks down, magnifying the image of John staring up at her.

Supporting her body weight against the tree and with her leg that's on his shoulder, she lifts her other foot off the ground and slips it out of her boot.

When he feels her bare foot brush against him, he grips her ankle firmly. He knows that just as when he pinned her against the tree, she could use her strength, speed, or dexterity to negate any one of his actions, but she allows him control of this leg as well, and he sets it on his other shoulder while his efforts continue for a short time.

"You _are_ different." she breathes.

Cameron whimpers when she feels his lips release her, and she sees his head turn toward the small clearing their first time took place in.

"Yeah, last time we sorta skipped foreplay."

"No, it just involved you and an assault rifle."

John rolls his eyes.

"Wow, you make it sound so heroic."

Slipping her legs off his shoulders and crouching with him, she kisses him softly.

"John, I love you-" he prepares to reciprocate but she places a finger over his lips, "I know... but I didn't think you'd come back for me. Not like that."

"Well, now you _know_ that I will." he zips himself up and uses one hand to pick up Cameron's discarded things, "Wanna take this over _there_ so I can finish what I started?"

Frowning slightly, she slips the strap of her top back onto her shoulder, but ignores her unhooked bra.

"It's just after ten and you haven't eaten."

His face doesn't show a hint of emotion.

"That's what I'm getting at."

Her brow furrows briefly before realization sets in.

"That doesn't count!"

John laughs quietly, then smiles at her.

"Have I ever told you how cute you are when you're confused?" she pouts and his smile only brightens, "_Or_ when you're angry?" he starts running his index finger along her protruding lower lip, "The way that your lip sticks out..." he starts leaning in to kiss her, "...just makes me want to-" she nips his finger, "Ow!"

Cameron giggles and smiles proudly.

"Still think I'm cute when I'm angry?"

Turning deathly serious and holding up his finger, it's obvious that there isn't a mark on it.

"_This_ is the sort of thing that I really need to know about, Cameron." she tilts her head slightly, "My fingers could be _completely_ _covered_ in red marks right now all because _you_ never warned me that terminators _bite_ when provoked." she stares blankly at him for a moment, then starts laughing, "You want something to laugh about? I'll tickle you into reboot."

Cameron stops laughing and looks at him in confusion.

"You know that I'm not ticklish."

Leaning forward, he whispers in her ear.

"That all depends on where my fingers are. I'll race you!"

She no sooner feels his hand under skirt than sees his back as he sprints toward the clearing.

"That's cheating!" she cries.

Cameron picks up her boot and hurls it at him. He yelps in surprise when the projectile hits him square in the ass.

With a late start and one bare foot, she can't beat him to the clearing without damaging her covering and stressing her joints. She can't help but wonder if John is merely being playful, or if he intentionally set up the impossible- a human winning a foot race against a terminator. Either way, she has to give him credit for showing her up the way he did. Hormonal teenager or not, John Connor was more in control than he had let on.

John stops at the edge of the clearing, and turns around to face her.

"Hey, Cam?" he holds up the backpack, "Gimme a minute, okay?"

Frowning at the interruption in the fun, she stops pursuing him. He smiles weakly then ducks through the brush in an odd direction. After a few minutes she hears him call to her, and she finds him standing on the edge of _their_ clearing with the G36C in his hands.

"Is it clear?" he asks her.

She furrows her brow, but he nods insistently toward the clearing and she scans it in several vision modes.

"It's clear... why?"

"Did you check it in infrared?" she nods, "Can you check it again, please?"

She does so and again finds nothing.

"John, there's nothing here. Just the two us."

"Thought so." he lies, "Just being careful."

She studies him while he puts a significant amount of effort into making the G36C fit into the backpack again. He certainly doesn't appear to be as good at packing as she is.

* * *

Scene 338: Great Outdoors

Friday June 13th, 2008

10:33am Topanga State Park - Their clearing

A thin blanket- little more than a thick sheet -has been spread out on the ground. Clothing is strewn about haphazardly while the backpack sits open, much of its contents spilling out.

Cameron slides herself down John's body until she hovers over his hips.

"Relax."

Slowly, she begins lowering herself onto him. She watches carefully and pauses each time that he shows signs of discomfort.

"Do you want to stop?" she jokes, with half of him inside her.

John tries not to laugh, but fails miserably.

"Sometimes you _really_ make me feel like a man..." he says sarcastically.

He groans as she sinks the rest of the way onto him and leans forward, kissing him deeply while waiting for their bodies to adjust.

She breaks the kiss and stares into his eyes while her long hair tickles his face.

"A boy wouldn't have come back alone."

John brushes her hair out of his face and pulls her lips down to his.

"Cam, I already owed you my life."

Cameron's hips begin moving slowly.

"You weren't here to die for me."

With her moving too cautiously, John wraps his arms around her abdomen then rolls, placing himself on top and slightly increasing their tempo.

"I was prepared to." she clenches each time he withdraws as if afraid he will not return, "I'll never leave you." he whispers.

Smiling up into his eyes, she wraps her arms and legs around him, pulling their bodies even closer. With a sense of wonder, she watches John nearly match her unblinking gaze as he makes love to _her_ instead of her body.

Sliding his hand under her head, his splayed fingers bury themselves in her hair while he brings their lips together again.

"I love you." he says softly, breaking their kiss only long enough to speak.

One of her hands rests on the narrow scar from her superheated hyperalloy palm, while her other slides over the healed bullet wounds on his body.

"I know you do." she grins as their kiss pauses, "I love you, too."

* * *

Scene 339: Weaknesses

Friday June 13th, 2008

1:16pm Topanga State Park - Their clearing

After nearly three hours, John slows his pace as Cameron's lips and teeth latch onto his neck in an effort to stifle her pleasured cries.

Regaining control of her motor functions, Cameron knows that he's tiring and will not allow himself to stop. She turns his face toward hers and hooks her ankles behind his pelvis, pulling him into herself.

"John... I don't get tired." she whispers, caressing his face, "It's okay that you do."

Smiling up at him, Cameron starts rhythmically clenching around him while she uses her heels to make sure that his thrusts do not slow. After less than a minute of staring into her loving eyes, her heels suddenly slam him into her and hold him firmly in place as he loses control, erupting deep within her.

Collapsing on top of her, out of breath and almost completely spent, John nuzzles her neck while she strokes his hair and keeps him buried inside herself.

"I wish that I _didn't_ get tired so quickly."

Cameron checks her chronometer while her unnecessary breathing comes under control. She can turn her breathing off altogether, but when it's on she has little control over it.

"It's been-" she worries that knowing the duration will make him focus on setting records, "It's been over two and a half hours. More than three if you include..." she trails off, grinning at the thought, "You can't expect to keep up me, so don't try."

Laughing quietly, John brushes her perspiration soaked locks away from her face.

"Yeah, I remember. You can't be bargained with. You don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear..." he kisses her neck and grins down at her, "...and you _absolutely_ _will not stop_. _Ever_."

"That's not true." fearing that his joke has been taken literally, John's grin disappears, "I _sometimes_ feel pity."

His smile returns.

"Oh? Like when?"

"Like now. It's after noon and you still haven't eaten."

He frowns while trailing a finger over her lips.

"You sure about that?"

She shakes her head at him.

"I told you before that _that_ doesn't count!"

Minutes later, the pistons which articulate Cameron's torso are locked, leaving her partially reclining with an arm around John who sits in her lap, leaning against her. Maple turkey sandwiches in hand, they watch the trees, the clouds, and the birds that haven't been put off by the sounds of their coupling.

Though starving, John is careful to eat slowly enough to not worry Cameron that he'll make himself sick.

"You know, Cam, I won't break that easily." he takes a drink of water, "You've almost been _too_ gentle lately."

She takes a moment to finish chewing before answering.

"I've been using strength only slightly greater than a human girl of my size. Increased proportionally to match my weight, actually... and only with my arms."

Though only able to see the side of his face, she can make out the surprise he's showing. Until recently, her embrace had been tighter and firmer than his. She had also been as active or more so than he was when changing positions.

"Really? Huh. I guess I just got used to you moving me around a little more."

"Is it a problem for you?" she asks quietly.

"No." he says around a mouthful of turkey, "How much of your strength you use is your call, not mine. I just want you to know that I understand my girlfriend is a super strong cyborg, and that you don't have to be so careful."

"But you'd be okay with it if I were to never use more strength than this with you again?"

John shakes his head.

"I'm not sure why you have to ask. It's _your_ hyperalloy combat chassis. You can do what you want with it."

Cameron kisses the nape of his neck.

"So can _you_." she purrs while tickling his midriff.

He laughs.

"Whoa... that's not _at_ _all_ what I meant." he takes another drink of water, "Although... while we're on the subject, I should find out a little more about your tolerances."

"Pain isn't-"

"No! Damn it, Cam, you know better than that!" she giggles, and he knows without her saying a word that he's been fooled again, "Yeah, you had _better_ be kidding." he says in mock anger, "Seriously, in case I have to replace parts someday when you... can't... help me... it would be nice to know the exact dimensions of your endoskeleton, or at least certain parts."

He's studied T-888's closely enough that he's confident he could reassemble one. However, with two or three similarly sized but incompatible T-888's mixed up together, he wouldn't have any idea where to start.

"I understand. We'll start talking about it at night until you fall asleep. I'll also tell you which parts don't have to match perfectly... which is most of them, actually."

A short time later they haven't moved, but John has slid down slightly, leaving the back of his head resting between Cameron's breasts, and her chin sitting on top of his head.

"Cam? I've told you what I thought when I first saw you. What did you think when you saw me?"

She embraces him tightly from behind and presses her cheek against his scalp.

"I liked what I saw."

"No you didn't." he says simply, not feeling the least bit concerned by that fact.

Having technically given an honest answer, Cameron sighs and answers more thoroughly.

"You were young, healthy, and fit. I knew that you would live for a long time. Your hair was long- several months' growth -suggesting that you had not seen- and were not expecting to see -any combat. You were unscarred which meant that you had never been seriously injured. You were nervous around me, but not scared or reserved which told me that you had not had a negative experience with a girl."

Cameron doesn't have to see his face to know that he's rolling his eyes.

"I had not had _an_ experience with a girl."

John doesn't have to see her face to know that she's grinning proudly at his statement.

"Your shyness also suggested a sexual attraction to me... though I've yet to verify my suspicion..."

They laugh together, then relax and sit quietly again. So comfortable is he in her embrace that he worries he'll fall asleep if they stop talking for too long.

"Cam? I know that exercise is good for me, and I keep telling myself that my joints will wear out long before yours, but I have to know for sure. Yours will outlast mine, right?"

When she doesn't answer, he turns his head to look up at her. Seeing her looking away, he fills with guilt and horror.

"Cam... am I... damaging you...?"

Her eyes snap to his.

"No!" she looks at him sadly, "My joints will outlast yours."

Reaching up he cups her cheek.

"Then what's wrong?"

Her hand settles on one of his scars.

"I don't want your body to wear out."

"Well, it won't for a very long time, so don't worry about it. Judgment Day aside, maybe some things- like arthritis -won't be an issue by the time I have to start worrying about them."

"There's no inoculation against aging, John."

"That's because it's not a disease." he fires back.

"I know. It's part of what makes you human."

John shifts slightly and lets his eyes close.

"It's good that we came back here." he chuckles and elbows her gently, "You should be ashamed of yourself, though."

"Why's that?"

"For tiring me out like you did." he says in mock annoyance, "I still have to walk out of here, you know."

"You _ran_ out of here last time, and ran back with weapons."

"No, I was _sprinting_." he corrects.

"Well that's even _easier_ so stop complaining."

He laughs quietly and is surprised when a pumice like object is placed against his lips.

"What the hell is that?" Cameron holds an open package of freeze-dried ice cream in front of him and pops the piece into his mouth, "I should have known you'd bring ice cream."

* * *

Scene 340: Guardian Angel?

Earlier that same day.

Friday June 13th, 2008

9:22am ZeiraCorp Headquarters - James Ellison's office

Having just returned to his office after what seems like a lifetime, Ellison doesn't even have time to close the door before a charging Golden Retriever alerts him to Weaver's honesty on at least one matter- she did have his dog delivered to his office.

So excited to see the return of his human, Uriel stands on his hind legs and places his front paws on Ellison's stomach while whining and wagging his tail.

James quickly lowers Uriel back onto all fours, certainly not about to scold him for jumping up on him, then kneels and pets Uriel.

"I'm back, everything's okay." he says as calmly as possible, knowing that his companion's happiness hinges upon his own mood, "You're a good boy, Uriel. Yeah. Good, good, boy."

A young woman- early twenties, 5' 6", blond hair, blue eyes -knocks on the open door, and Uriel moves toward her, sniffing the woman's shoes.

"Hi there, little guy." she says to Uriel, then turns her attention to James, "Does he bite?"

"Not humans." he responds, as though the information has a deeper meaning.

To such an experienced interrogator as Ellison, the woman's short laugh is obviously fake. He suspects that she feels her job is tied to his view of her, which is puzzling to him. Merely being head of security, he's unsure of why a face he's never seen before would wish to keep the pretense of holding him in high regard.

He walks over to her and holds out his hand. So occupied is she with keeping dog hair off her skirt, she almost fails to notice Ellison's gesture.

"James." he says with a smile, shaking her hand.

"Tina." her handshake is firmer than he had expected, "Ms. Weaver asked me to keep an eye on you. If you need any help, my desk is just down the hall."

"After taking a couple months off, I guess she thinks I need some time to get back into the swing of things."

Already close, Tina takes a step closer and her voice becomes an exaggerated whisper.

"I think something's going on around here, you know? I think they're keeping something from us."

James feigns total ignorance of any strange happenings within ZeiraCorp.

"Like what?" he smiles reassuringly when she tightly seals her lips and shifts nervously, "I put my time in at the FBI, I know how to keep secrets."

Relaxing a little, she glances around to make sure no one's listening, then leans forward and whispers to him.

"It's just a feeling that I have, but I think that something bad is going to happen... like we're going to be _attacked_."

His feigns his surprise, but not his interest.

"What makes you say that?"

Tina's eyes momentarily dart to the hallway outside James' office.

"Well... there are little things, but they're _big_. Everyone seems on edge... like, _worse_ than usual, and Ms. Weaver has been spending less time here. Then you come back, and I'm assigned to you. She said that you won't even be leaving the building for a while. I think that she's been threatened. It could be... _terrorists_!"

Ellison shakes his head.

"This is a computer company. There aren't many people who would risk their lives to shut it down. Please, don't be afraid to come to me with your concerns. You never know what may be important. There were times- a lot of times -in my previous life, when knowing something like a suspects favorite chewing gum saved lives."

After chewing her lip nervously for a few seconds, she continues.

"Ms. Weaver never eats or drinks anything."

Ellison laughs.

"Yeah, when she was trying to convince me to leave the Bureau to come work for her, she invited me to lunch. We had water, and she had one sip."

The girl seems surprised.

"Well, Mr. Ellison-"

He holds up a hand.

"James, please."

Her muscles tense as though resisting a curtsey, then she smiles sweetly and nods.

"Well, James, I'll leave you to get settled in."

Ellison smiles.

"Thanks. Have a nice day."

She closes the door as she leaves, and James' pleasant, energetic facade falls away.

He drags his tired feet all the way to his office chair and drops into it. Closing his eyes, he tries to shut out the images of what he's seen, and even tries to ignore Uriel's muzzle resting on his leg.

With a sigh, he sets his hand on the dog's head and smiles faintly at him. His eyes land on his office phone, which he has no doubt is being monitored. Somehow, he has to find out whose the T-888 was calling.

'How do I get a message out of here?'

Hearing a timid knock at the door, he resists the urge to shout. Proper etiquette demands that he open the door and greet _what_ever is on the other side. After a surprising difficult walk across the room, James pulls open the door, and sees no one.

"You're back!" a tiny voice exclaims.

"Hey! How ya been Savannah?" he kneels and gives the little girl a tight hug.

Savannah is the reason that he hasn't already tried his hand at escaping. If he runs, he _has_ to get her away from that metal monster. All the death and destruction that Sarah Connor and her accomplice were blamed for, had turned out to be an extended firefight with something like Weaver. One of the _normal_ robots killed twenty members of an FBI Hostage Rescue Team, but Cameron, Derek, and Sarah destroyed it with a little help from him. If Sarah and a robot couldn't handle that liquid... _thing_... then how can he escape it alone?

"I've missed you." she says quietly.

"Aw, well I missed you too."

She looks at the floor.

"I'm glad you came back."

James is silent for a brief moment, then forces a reassuring smile.

"So am I."

Smiling brightly, Savannah looks up at the ex-agent.

"Do you want to play a game?"

Ellison wants nothing more than to fall asleep and try to forget about what's happened, but the little girl who has nothing except murderous robots for company needs a real person.

"Sure, Savannah."

* * *

**Cptlatnok: I forced their return to Topanga and I forced the resolution of their problems, but the fears themselves have influenced dialog since this story began. I set aside 7 fears, believing- perhaps erroneously -that it would give me inside information about the characters thoughts, and make dialog flow more easily and realistically. Four fears for John, and three for Cameron, but his fear that additional damage to her chip could make her forget him conveniently overlaps with her fear that chip damage could result in him not wanting her anymore. Maybe I should have left hints, or made it clear that issues were being skirted around rather than confronted, but from my perspective these things were eating away at them. The only one of their fears that I recall making clear at any point is John's concern that when he has nothing left to teach Cameron, she'll take off in search of someone else. In 'Scene 281: Savior of Humanity'(a pun referring to Cameron as the savior of John's humanity, BTW) which takes place on May 6th, 2008, John thinks that he has already lost her because she hasn't said 'Thank you for explaining' in a month.**


	25. Scenes 341 to 350

***************************************************************************************

Scene 341: Valued Employee

Friday June 13th, 2008

5:30pm ZeiraCorp Headquarters - James Ellison's office

Sleeping uncomfortably in his chair, James doesn't hear Weaver's entrance. Uriel's feet twitch rapidly as he chases something in his dreams.

Weaver frowns at the pair before her.

"_Ahem_!" James starts awake, and Uriel begins barking at the living statue that has entered the room. "What possessed you to sleep in your office? You are my _guest_ here, James."

Ellison grips Uriel's collar to make sure he stays away from the metal monster, and nods meaningfully at him while smirking at Weaver.

"Is that why I'm not allowed to walk my own dog? Because guests don't do that sort of thing?"

Weaver seems to take further offense.

"If you leave, a machine will kill you." Her eyes pan slowly to the dog. "He is also safer when he isn't around you."

Ellison glares, but doesn't respond.

"Come with me, James." Catherine smiles, and gestures toward the door. "I recently terminated one of ZeiraCorp's smaller projects, leaving a room free. I had a bed brought in for you. There's even an adjoining washroom."

Taking the leash from his desk, James attaches it to Uriel's collar, unsure of what he'll do if he gets too close to Weaver. Or worse, what she'll do to Uriel.

"Don't like your employees going too far, I guess," Ellison says snidely.

The expression fades from her face until no humanity remains.

"No. I most certainly do not."

***************************************************************************************

Scene 342: Playing Dumb

Friday June 13th, 2008

5:33pm Topanga State Park - Parking lot

Cameron walks directly toward the sedan, while John stays a half step behind her, and to her right, carrying the backpack on his right shoulder.

After climbing behind the wheel, Cameron watches confusedly as John continues to the back of the car. He opens the trunk with his own key, deposits the backpack inside, then slams it shut with a loud clunk.

Her head tilts when John gets into the car beside her, and his brow furrows in return.

"What?" He smiles nervously.

"John, you put the rifle is in the trunk," she states simply.

He stares blankly for a moment, then rolls his eyes and laughs quietly.

"Oh, right. I forgot about that."

As he steps out of the car, she presses the trunk release button, then watches him suspiciously as he returns to the back of the car.

She can't see him, but she hears the contents of the backpack spilling out.

"Shit," he mutters, ostensibly annoyed that he has to pick everything up again.

"Are you all right?" Cameron asks, her suspicion turning to concern. She begins to wonder if his ribs have started to hurt again, and are making coordinated movements difficult for him. Was she too rough when trying to prove that she hadn't killed _her_ John?

He doesn't respond immediately.

"Don't worry about it, Cam," he answers with far too much cheer.

Once more becoming suspicious, she raises the sensitivity of her audio receptors. Although she hears nothing unusual, the moment that John returns to his seat next to her, she places a hand on his neck. His heartbeat is irregular, but she can't be sure if it's from pain, annoyance, or nervousness.

"Why are you scanning me?" he asks.

Realizing that it can't be life or death, she concedes that it's not worth invading his privacy.

"Sorry." She begins pulling her hand away, but he catches it and puts it back on his neck.

"It's okay, Cam." He smiles. "Now, why am I being scanned?"

Pausing, she uses his currently elevated vitals to create a new baseline.

"Did I hurt you?"

John doesn't hesitate to answer.

"Never."

Her face falls when his answer passes her scan. Even cross-referencing the results with his healthy, resting vitals, they still fall just within normal parameters. After being struck, and later crushed to death by her, John truly believes that she has _never_ harmed him.

Cameron takes her hand from his neck and places it on the steering wheel, no longer interested in questioning him.

Several minutes pass before either of them speak again.

"When we get back, I want to take the car out by myself for a few hours," he says impassively.

Cameron's worried gaze darts to him.

"Why? Did I do something wrong?"

When he turns to look at her, she sees a hint of determination, but no concern.

"No, of course not. I just want to go out for a while." He stares unblinkingly for a moment, then smiles. "It's not that I want to be alone, it's that I have to be. I need to take care of myself _once in a while_, you know?"

She tries to hide it, but she knows that her pain is showing. She nods curtly and turns back to the road.

"If you need time alone, then you can have it," she says sorrowfully.

Without another word, John turns to look out the window again.

***************************************************************************************

Scene 343: Pop

Friday June 13th, 2008

6:17pm Los Angeles, California - Pacific Coast Highway

Having convinced Cameron to let him leave without her protection and without telling her where he wishes to go, John drives down the relatively lightly traveled Route 1.

Staring blankly at the road in front of him, he has two metal items in the passenger seat, covered by his leather jacket.

Squeezing the steering wheel as hard as he can, John glares at the seat next to him, and his anger builds with each passing second.

"Fuck!"

His teeth grind together as he puts down the passenger side window.

"Fucking Skynet," he mutters. He shakes his head, then focuses his angry gaze on the road. "I can't let her know how close it was." He shakes his head again. "I said it was dangerous, but she insisted. She'd blame herself instead of Skynet. It would destroy her. It would destroy _us_." John checks his odometer. "I can't let that happen."

He turns on the radio, and finds that it's still tuned to a pop music station. It makes him sick to listen to it- especially when the songs that he can't fucking stand get stuck in his head for days -but it reminds him of having Cameron in the car, and it reassures him that he's doing what's right for her. After all, there are no risks, grays, terminators, or guns involved. He doesn't even have to lie to her. Not _really_, at least. He just needs to keep a secret. And keep Cameron far, far, from Topanga.

"Right in front of her." His mind flashes with images of Cameron screaming and crying while she tries putting ribbons of meat together into something vaguely resembling him. "Turned into fucking hamburger right in front of her."

John nears a bridge over an ocean inlet, and moves his jacket, uncovering the pair of M18A1 Claymores. Both are equipped with infrared motion sensors, and both had been waiting at the edge of _their_ clearing.

Even being trained to watch for booby traps in wooded areas like the Mexican and Central American jungles, he knows that it was mostly luck that allowed him to spot the first anti-personnel mine- all of two steps before entering its killzone. The second he found due to his training, and because he would have set a second to cover the first were he the person planting them. The _person_ planting them. The _human_. It was just some random gray, denying John a specific target for his rage.

There would have been no fight or last stand for him, or for Cameron. No tear filled goodbyes or slow loss of consciousness. He would have been killed instantly with Cameron looking on helplessly as his body was torn apart by hundreds of steel pellets only seconds after she had playfully thrown her boot at him.

"Skynet and its fucking pets," he growls through gritted teeth.

Once on the bridge, John hurls the mines out the window one after the other. The strong currents in the water below will prevent anyone from finding them.

Satisfied that Cameron will never discover what had been waiting for them at Topanga, he suddenly becomes aware of how irritating he finds the music on the radio, and he scrambles to shut it off. As soon as the car is silent, he slumps down in his seat and heads for Downey just a few miles away.

John glances at the clock.

"Shit." Stores will start closing soon- if they haven't already -and he knows that there isn't enough time to make all of the required stops. "Maybe I can get a couple out of the way."

***************************************************************************************

Scene 344: Make Yourself At Home

Friday June 13th, 2008

8:01pm Los Angeles, California - A small house

A T-888 has just knocked on the front door of a one story building.

The terminator's eyes glow red when the door opens, causing the man answering to freeze momentarily.

"W-what are you here for?"

"Weapons," it responds monotonously.

The man looks behind him, then stands aside.

"This way," he says, motioning for the machine to follow him deeper into the building.

Minutes later, the machine scans the available weapons.

_Intratec, TEC DC-9: 9x19mm_

_Threat Level: None_

_Bushmaster, Carbon-15 Pistol: 5.56x45mm_

_Threat Level: Minimal_

_Norinco, CQ 5.56: 5.56.45mm_

_Threat Level: Minimal_

_Norinco, MAK-90: 7.62x39mm_

_Threat Level: Minimal_

_Mossberg, 500: 12 gauge_

_Threat Level: None_

_Remington, 870: 12 gauge_

_Threat Level: None_

_Remington, 1100: 12 gauge_

_Threat Level: None_

The machine ignores several dozen duplicates and small caliber pistols.

"One of my targets is a terminator," it states.

The gray shifts nervously.

"We aren't... They don't let us have AP ammo."

The T-888 tilts its head.

"Why?"

The man is afraid to answer, but _terrified_ of refusing the machine what it wants.

"They're... afraid that we might... destroy our overseers."

The terminator lays claim to a pair of TEC-9 machine pistols and a bag which it places them inside.

"If you destroy us, then you will have no purpose."

The gray can't resist talking back.

"We don't _need_ orders or missions to have a purpose." The machine takes an AK-47, an AR-15, and an AR-15 pistol. "Hey, those Norincos are true full auto, but be careful with the Bushy. It's not designed for full automatic, and slamfires are possible. It might blow up in your hand."

"Unlikely." After filling its bag with magazines to accompany its new weapons, the T-888 turns to the gray. "Currency," it demands.

"There's not a lot." The gray opens a desk drawer and withdraws a few thousand dollars.

As it takes the cash, the T-888 sees the barcode on the man's arm. Although it has no information on individual prisoners, it has some understanding of the rate at which humans were captured.

"You were captured in 2016," it estimates.

The gray glares at the terminator.

"Yes, that's right. I was _twelve_." The machine stares at him for a moment, then begins to leave. "Hey, when do we get what you promised us?" He waves an arm at the interior of the house which he shares with other grays. "When do we get our own places, and our own lives?"

The terminator has no idea what he's talking about.

"I do not know."

Keeping what he hopes is a safe distance, the gray follows the T-888.

"So are _we_ getting screwed over because of what the others did?"

The machine turns around just as he reaches the door, causing the gray to jump back.

"I do not know," it repeats. With that, it exits the safehouse and begins its hunt.

***************************************************************************************

Scene 345: Bomb Squad

Monday June 16th, 2008

2:04pm John and Cameron's apartment - Kitchen

When John returned after a brief, early morning supply run, he had found that Cameron was gone.

Having taken full advantage of the time alone, John has just stepped back to admire his work.

Heat lamps, clipped onto cupboard doors, are drying nearly one hundred pounds of damp crystals sitting on trays. John smirks at the sight.

"You are going to make one hell of a bang when I'm done with you."

After breaking down an empty styrofoam cooler, he takes a large kettle of liquid into the bathroom to dispose of its contents. The process of purifying the crystals has been a simple, but tedious one.

'Too bad Cameron can't control herself a little better.' He has little doubt that they would be completely broke if they hadn't stolen weapons and tactical gear before meeting Alexander. As things stand, they have money to burn, but not as much as he'd like. 'So here I am making explosives in my kitchen instead of buying them.'

John returns the kettle to the kitchen, washes it, then picks up a small saw, and turns his attention to a six foot piece of six inch diameter PVC pipe.

'This is easier than what I _wanted_ to make, but not as good.' He shakes his head as he begins to cut the pipe into six, one foot pieces. 'If I tell Cameron what I would _like_ to make, she'll break into every high school, college, and university in California.' He stops cutting and takes a moment to remove PVC from the teeth of the saw, careful not to burn himself now that friction has heated blade. 'Or worse... she might knock off a bank.' He rolls his eyes, remembering the entrance she made when leading him and his mother into the bank in 1999.

After making all five cuts, he picks up an endcap, smears the inner walls with glue, then pops it onto the end of a pipe and moves on to the next.

'She could be out there robbing and killing people right now.' The thought bothers him, but not as much as he thinks it should. He's more worried that she may be damaged while trying to _avoid_ killing people. 'That would be my fault.'

John sets down the glue and looks at his nearby Mk 14. There was a time when he would have given his life to protect his mother, and when he would have prefered that the T-1001 had attacked him, but avoiding personal injury was always of secondary importance to preventing Judgment Day.

Now, he would rather watch the world burn around him than have to see Cameron covered in thermite and crawling away from his uncle again- even knowing that she survives the attack.

'Do I feel like this because I'm screwed up, or is this how normal people feel when they're in love?'

Shaking himself out of his unproductive reverie, he quickly finishes capping one end of each pipe, then places all six vertically in a box which he sets on a chair.

'Is this the right decision?' His eyes fall on one of two large blue gas cans. They're supposed to be used for water, which makes them the perfect choice for transporting chemicals without drawing attention. 'Will this fuck everything up?'

The sound of the apartment door opening, followed by quiet footsteps makes him smile.

Cameron walks into the room a few seconds later, and glances around at what he's done to their kitchen.

"You're making a bomb," she states. Cameron almost looks hurt as she turns her attention to him. "You didn't have to settle for this. I could have made-" John groans and covers his face. "What?"

"_Please_, don't say RDX, HMX, or PETN."

Looking at his work, she is unable to see any reason for him to prefer what he's making to military high explosives.

"Why not?"

He looks at her incredulously.

"Cameron, _I_ can make HMX."

She watches him for a moment before her head tilts.

"Then why don't you?"

Sighing, he shakes his head.

"Because you can't just _buy_ acetic anhydride."

"High schools, colleges, and universities are easily penetrated. It's also-"

"Possible to make it from acetic acid... but it's more time consuming than any of this is." He doesn't bother pointing out that handling acid is more dangerous than the individually harmless chemicals he is using.

"I don't sleep." Her eyes fall on the drying crystals and the large blue container of liquid. "Anytime that we need explosives, I can make them while you're sleeping, and then we can spend the day together."

It doesn't matter to him if she means what he thinks she's saying or not. John still feels guilty for working instead of spending time with her. He often wakes up to find that she has spent at least some of the night cleaning, shopping, or maintaining their weapons. Now it feels like by trying to make himself useful, he's just denying her what she has been working for.

"As long as you don't do anything dangerous." She opens her mouth to protest. "Dangerous for _a terminator_," he amends.

She smiles at unintentionally being given carte blanche to acquire resources and equipment.

"What TNT equivalency are you hoping to achieve?"

Crossing his arms proudly, he smiles as much at his own efforts as her total disregard for whatever he intends to blow up.

"I'm not 'hoping' for anything. I'm _expecting_ perfection."

Cameron looks at the blue container again.

"I can't guarantee better than the equivalent of eighty pounds of TNT."

His smile drops away, but he doesn't take offense.

"I'm no amateur." John follows her gaze. "Double that number." He locks eyes with her and smiles. "I've been making explosives since before you were built, you know?"

Smiling back, she nods almost imperceptibly, then the implications of his statement hit her. She looks nervously at the crystals that will soon be crushed into a fine powder. Cameron's gaze then settles on the blue gas can. She knows that it's going to be too stable, and that if John is going to this much trouble, he probably doesn't plan on wasting their detonators. Her eyes dart to a duffel bag in the corner of the room, and she switches to infrared, finding that it contains a fairly typical chemistry set.

"What are you going to use for your primary charge?"

Frowning at the thought of the time consuming process, he looks over his shoulder at the bag.

"I was going to make my own lead styphnate."

He's surprised when Cameron plants a hand on his shoulder and turns him around to face her.

"No you're not!" She seems as stunned by her own outburst as he is. "I'll get us some blasting caps," she adds calmly.

It takes him only a moment to recover, as there's nothing unusual about his choice, and all but the most sensitive explosives can be handled safely by an expert- and John _knows_ that he qualifies.

He thrusts a thumb toward the bag behind him.

"I have _everything_ that we need to get _five_ of these things done."

Cameron seems to miss the specificity of his statement, and points angrily at the doorway.

"I can have professionally made detonators-"

"I _am_ a professional," he interrupts. "Go ahead and say it, Cameron. Tell me that I'm stupid, or irresponsible, or careless for walking in and out of a few stores. Tell me that I'm taking unnecessary risks because some guy working the fucking register at Lowe's might recognize me, when _you_ are the one who wants to run off and steal shit that we don't need, without bothering to tell me where the fuck you're going!" When she looks away, he hangs his head, disgusted with himself for talking to her the way he has. "I've done this before and I still have all ten fingers." When she doesn't say anything, he walks over to the bag and picks it up, then sets it on top of the PVC pipes. "You never saw the General do any of this, did you?" he asks softly.

Her eyes are filled with fear as she turns them toward him.

"No. I never saw him do any of this." He nods while removing a few beakers and setting them on the edge of the counter. "Your mother taught you more than I thought," she says sadly.

"My mother..." he trails off and shakes his head. "I guess I've started calling her that again. It's like I'm remembering three different people." He smiles and looks wistfully at the stove, almost able to smell burning meat and nearly inedible boxed pancakes. "First, there's my mom. She used to read and sing to me. We'd play games and stuff." His smile wanes but doesn't disappear. "Then, there's my teacher. She was... a little strict and demanding, but she cared. She only told me stories when there was a lesson that I could learn, or a metaphor for what we were going through, though. Sometimes she acted like she was _just_ my instructor, and other times she acted like my friend. She would at least try to make things more tolerable." He sighs and looks up at Cameron. "Being from 2027 where people will take whatever they can get, I guess that you wouldn't know how hard it is for a 20th century American to live off of bugs, worms, roots, and mushrooms. Live worms taste better than raw mushrooms, by the way," he says with a chuckle. His cheer fades until only darkness remains. "You already know the last one. The one who wanted to put me through everything that she blamed me for putting her through." Cameron prepares to say something, but he shakes his head and she stops. "She was just one broken person, and I know that it's a mistake to separate the good from the bad, but I can't help it."

"I know. It's how you deal with bad things." She struggles with herself for a moment, trying to decide if she should say anything or not. "She didn't blame you for any of it," Cameron blurts out.

When John's eyes dart to hers, Cameron can't tell if he has heard something he's been waiting for, or if she has made a mistake.

"You didn't know her. She didn't spend years beating me in the jungle out of love. She did it because she _hated_ me. She blamed me for what I did to her and my father."

"John... she didn't hate you or blame you. She was just crazy and she knew it."

With his eyes closed, he shakes his head.

"No. She _didn't_ know that she was crazy, but it doesn't matter anymore, so let's forget about it." He opens his eyes and smiles weakly.

"She _did_ know it." Cameron opens the refrigerator and pretends to inspect the contents, even though both of them know that her memory is perfect. "Have you eaten?"

Pushing aside his memories, he looks over at teh heat lamps. John sees no reason to believe that they can't be left unattended, but reminds himself that his girlfriend happens to be a computer, and that her judgment is better than his.

"What are the chances that these things will start a fire?"

She tilts her head at him, then glances at the subject of his query and switches to infrared.

"None."

He walks over to her and puts an arm around her.

"Good. Let's go get something to eat." She looks down at her purple jacket, jeans, and combat boots, then up at him questioningly, and he smiles. "You're fine, Cam."

***************************************************************************************

Scene 346: Playing Pretend

Monday June 16th, 2008

2:55pm Los Angeles, California - Asian restaurant

Cameron and John chat over bowls of chicken teryaki and beef lo mein.

A short silence falls over them, and John becomes concerned when he realizes that she's staring at him instead of eating.

"Is everything okay?"

She smiles and nods toward his hand.

"You're using chopsticks." He tilts his head at her, and she looks past him. "I don't know how to use them."

Confused beyond words by her inability to replicate the simple act like she can with ballet, he finally turns to see what she's so interested in. Spotting an older boy teaching his date to use chopsticks as an excuse to put his arm around her, John smiles and sets down his own.

"Okay, Cam." After moving to her side of the table, he opens her chopsticks and slips his right arm around her to take her right hand. While gently repositioning her fingers, he tries not to laugh. She is feigning a _total_ lack of understanding not only of how to use the utensils, but how to use her _hands_. "All right, keep your fingers like _this_." John places one chopstick in her hand. "Clench your fingers- but don't break the chopstick. Good." The second one he holds above the first and moves her fingers carefully to grasp it. He then guides her hand toward her dish, and carefully picks up a piece of beef teryaki. Half expecting her to drop it on purpose, he slowly brings the utensils upward.

As suddenly as she'd asked him for help, she starts using them like a pro.

"Thank you, John," she says sweetly.

John smiles and takes his arm from around her.

"You're welcome." After watching for a few moments as Cameron handles them with more precision and grace than he can even imagine possessing, John looks across the restaurant to check on the progress of the other couple. The girl has sweet and sour sauce on her shirt, and she's pointing at him and Cameron. John averts his gaze just as the boy glares at him. "You're a faster learner than most, Cam."

She leans close to him.

"That's because _most_ don't have CPU's," she whispers.

He shrugs.

"True." She spears her chopsticks vertically into her dish, and he quickly repositions them to rest horizontally. "You shouldn't stand them up like that. It's impolite." When Cameron reaches for her tea, she bumps her chopsticks, causing them to point at John in another rude gesture, and prompting him to narrow his eyes at her. "_You_ are messing with me," he playfully accuses.

As he moves his dish to their side of the table, Cameron picks out a clump of chicken and noodles.

"Xiexie," she says.

"Bu keqi," he answers, drawing a surprised look from her. He quickly shakes his head. "No, I can only speak English and Spanish, but I've picked up a few words from movies."

"You don't watch movies anymore," she says with a hint of sadness. "You don't even listen to music."

He rolls his eyes.

"You know, most girls would be _happy_ or even grateful to find a guy who'd rather listen to them talk about... well... _anything_ instead of watching TV. Besides, it's not like I don't have any hobbies." He smiles over at her. "I really should be putting more time into certain projects, but this feels more productive."

Lowering her voice and directing it toward him, Cameron is certain that no other human will be able to hear her.

"What sort of projects?"

***************************************************************************************

Scene 347: Stake Out For Two

Thursday June 19th, 2008

11:28am Los Angeles, California - Wholesale District

John and Cameron roll slowly down Seaton Street in a poorly kept van with tinted windows. There are more homeless people in this part of the city than anywhere else, which will make it impossible to go unnoticed.

In case of complications, his REC7 and her G36 along with attached M320's are in the vehicle, and their body armor is also on hand.

While John's polarized sunglasses allow him to see through the glare on _intact_ warehouse windows, only Cameron's infrared vision is unobstructed by the opaque plastic sheeting that covers the numerous broken ones.

"There," she says suddenly, pointing at one of the buildings.

As she brings the van to a stop, John retrieves four cell phones from his bag. With a sigh, he hands off two of them to Cameron. John has modified their programming, allowing them to pick up calls and text messages not intended for them. There is one for each of the cellular service providers that someone would be most likely to use. _If_ there are grays in the area, and _if_ they receive orders by phone, they'll be able to listen in. Unfortunately, that means sitting in a metal box with wheels for hours on end, hoping to monitor calls that may never be made, to grays who may not even exist in this part of the city.

John is thankful for his large thermos of coffee, and small cooler, but especially so for an interesting person to talk to.

"What are the odds of us picking up a gray by this evening?" he asks, looking over his homemade GPS jammer. Skynet's forces won't be tracking any grays they may pick up.

In lieu of an answer, he receives a blow to the chest with a harmless but _incredibly_ loud object, and reflexively wraps his arms around it. He can tell just by feel that it's a bag of Cheetos.

"I got you some of those crunchy cheese things," she says _almost_ monotonously.

Chuckling, he rips open the bag and holds it out to her.

"You're never going to let me live that one down, are you?"

"Nope," she answers while crunching a cheese curl, "I never forget."

***************************************************************************************

Scene 348: Greater Purpose

Thursday June 19th, 2008

12:34pm ZeiraCorp Headquarters - Ellison's office

Seated at his desk, James reviews floor plans, guard schedules, security codes, and alarm systems. Savannah and Uriel play together in the small office.

Looking up from his work, Ellison watches Savannah. He can't imagine what her life must be like for her to prefer spending her time with him and his dog than anyone else she knows. The thought tears him apart.

He had wanted to have children of his own, but Lila aborted what would have been their first without telling him, and their marriage crumbled shortly soon after he found out.

Now middle-aged and with no kids of his own, Ellison finds himself more concerned with what _can_ _be_ than with what could have been.

'Maybe I'm not meant to have children. Maybe that's not my purpose.' Uriel lets out a playful bark, and the volume stuns Savannah for a moment, but she soon giggles, bringing a bright smile to Ellison's face. 'Maybe I was put here to care for children who are trapped in this hellish war. Savannah and John don't deserve this fate.'

Looking down at the papers in front of him, his smile doesn't diminish, but the light in his eyes fades. He mentally recites the phone number of the T-888's controller.

'I have to get a message out... but John Henry monitors _everything_, and I can't leave.' His eyes fall on Savannah and Uriel again. 'An office is no place for a little girl and a dog. They _both_ need room to run.'

James' smile vanishes, and he focuses on Savannah. If he's right about where the T-888's orders were coming from, then going to John Henry for help will end his life, and his information will be lost. If he's wrong, and Weaver is helping humanity, then by seeking outside assistance, he may well be killing _everyone_.

Watching the little girl as she laughs and plays, he makes a decision.

"Savannah... how would you like to play a game?"

***************************************************************************************

Scene 349: Something's Amiss

Thursday June 19th, 2008

2:00pm Los Angeles, California - Wholesale District

John and Cameron continue to converse while watching for activity, and monitoring their phones.

Zooming in on a surprisingly tall homeless man, Cameron confirms that he is merely an unarmed human, and turns her attention back to the first warehouse.

"Why did your mother involve you with freedom fighters in Mexico?"

He shakes his head while squinting at some second story windows.

"Not in Mexico, in _Guatemala_. She never told me why, but I think she figured that being in the middle of a civil war meant that the machines would have to fight their way through _two_ armies and _her_ before they got to me."

Even so, he can't help but wonder if his mother just wanted him to suffer. If she showed him the human side of war just to make the mantle of leadership that much more painful for him. He'll never forget the friendly people he met, or the lessons he learned. He didn't see the war, but he saw the people, he saw their scars, and more importantly he heard their stories. He heard their reasons for fighting, and he knows that the people his mother introduced him to were waging war because they wanted a government that would build schools and hospitals.

'Was it out of cruelty, or was she teaching me to use hope to make people follow me? To _force_ them follow?' John takes a large gulp of coffee. 'Where's the line between _inspiration_ and _enslavement_?'

Cameron's voice pulls him from his thoughts.

"What about the _other_ army?"

John shrugs.

"They were just humans, and they had to get past her and an army to get to me." John looks at the warehouses and the homeless filling the area. "If we have to bring down a building, a small incendiary device inside would work." He takes note of the fairly large sections of pavement between each potential target and the closest buildings. "If we do it right, the fire department should be able to keep it from spreading... _too_ _far_."

After Cameron confirms that a group of drifting homeless people consists only of humans, she reduces her zoom and looks over at John as he calmly sips his coffee.

"What sort of accelerant do you want?"

"Napalm." He smiles over at her. "My mom taught me how to make it." John turns and watches several people pass their parked vehicle. "When we were in Central America, she made a lot of the stuff."

Cameron grabs his upper arm.

"Did you help?" she asks frantically.

"No." He looks at his arm where she's gently gripping it. "Why?"

"Benzene is carcinogenic." She releases his arm.

"Cancer..." He furrows his brow. "You said that my mom was going to die of cancer. Is that what caused it?"

"Leukemia, specifically, but her exposure should have been insufficient to cause cancer. It's possible that it was the cause, but more likely it was only a contributer."

John sighs loudly.

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter since future me never had it." He looks over at her. "So, is that a no on the napalm? I'd rather not set off explosives here." John glances around at all the people in the area. "People can outrun smoke and fire, but not shrapnel."

She looks down at his weapon bag.

"We don't know that Skynet has any holdings in this area."

"Bullshit." Cameron looks up at him confusedly, and John points at the homeless men, women, and children moving through the area. "They don't have anywhere to go, so why aren't any of them hanging out in _that_ parking lot?" Leaning forward to get a better angle on his window, he looks back to see if anyone's coming. Spotting a lone homeless man approaching from behind their van, John turns toward Cameron with his face blank. "Watch this."

Wearing his expensive leather jacket and sunglasses, John suddenly steps out of the van and leans casually against the vehicle.

Irritated by his recklessness, Cameron lifts her G36 and watches for threats, hoping that he isn't about to get himself shot.

As the homeless man nears John, he gives him a wide berth and doesn't make eyecontact. John reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a pair of black leather gloves. The man seems visibly shaken by the sight of John putting them on, and John has enough proof that _someone_ in the area doesn't like loiterers.

"What's your name?" John asks.

The man looks ready to run.

"Gary... sir," he says submissively.

Trying to make himself as innocuous as possible, John smiles and clasps his hands behind his back.

"What goes on around here, Gary?"

The man licks his chapped lips nervously, and glances around.

"N-nothing. It's real quiet."

Nodding, John looks knowingly at the warehouse he's been watching.

"So nothing interesting happens in that place?" He trains his gaze on Gary. "Nothing at all?"

Gary sniffs, and looks at the warehouse out of the corner of his eye. After a few seconds, he relents.

"The ones who sleep near there disappear."

Raising his eyebrows in faux disbelief, John does an excellent job at acting surprised.

"They _disappear_? Are you sure they don't just... move on?"

The man laughs sardonically.

"Yeah, greener pastures to be had." He shakes his head. "No, some turn up, beaten to death and dumped. No one cares, so _they_ don't trouble themselves to hide the bodies too good. Just another John or Jane for the city to bury."

John nods and watches Gary closely.

'There,' he thinks, catching him glance at a man wearing a jumpsuit. The warehouse worker crosses the street, heading straight for a parked car.

"Don't look at him, look at me." John instructs. "Is _he_ one of _them_?" Gary nods subtly, and John taps on the van's window, then points at the man. "If you're telling me the truth my... people and I will do everything that we can to make sure that they don't hurt anyone else." With his hands still behind his back, John makes a move that is intentionally ambiguous to the man he's talking to. "Are you being honest with me, Gary?"

The man nods.

"Yes, I am."

John watches his face for any hint of dishonesty, and finds none.

"Thank you for your help."

As inconspicuously as possible, John transfers two hundred dollars to Gary, then climbs back into the van with Cameron.

"There's no proof that Skynet is involved," she states, having heard the entire conversation.

John watches the possible gray's car as it pulls away.

"Actually, there's no proof that anything he said is true, but we need more than VIN numbers and GPS." He rests his hand on his REC7. "Even the hard drives gave us nothing. We need a brain."

"Or a chip," Cameron adds while starting the van.

John's eyes narrow briefly in as much of a wince as he'll allow himself.

"Or a chip," he agrees.

***************************************************************************************

Scene 350: Sidekick

Thursday June 19th, 2008

3:07pm Los Angeles, California - Downtown

The change in scenery is jarring. After following their target to his apartment barely one mile away from the warehouses and hundreds of homeless lining the streets, they are now surrounded by restaurants, hotels, and housing. In fact, City Hall is less than half a mile from where their van is now parked.

John looks over at Cameron while clenching and unclenching his hands, testing his gloves to make sure that his dexterity will not be hindered by the leather.

"Well?"

She looks sadly at his chest.

"This is more than I agreed to. It's also more than you led me to believe you'd be doing."

With a smile he pats his chest, confident that three weeks is enough for him to heal.

"I heal faster now than I will in a few years, so let's take advantage of it."

Cameron frowns and watches the apartment building.

"Fine, then you can carry him yourself."

John is surprised by the bitterness in her tone, but ignores it and transfers his REC7 along with several magazines to her bag.

"That's not a problem, but you're carrying the weapons." He uses the quick detach button on his M320 to remove it from his REC7 in case he needs the rifle indoors, but he leaves the launcher in Cameron's bag. He then takes out one of his GPS jammers and looks at Cameron. "Ready?" She stares blankly at him, then steps out and starts toward the apartment building without saying a word. Shaking his head, John activates the jammer and leaves it in the van as he gets out and follows Cameron.

In infrared, she zooms in on a warm handprint left on their target's car door, then enters the building with John close to her.

Within two minutes, Cameron identifies warmth on a doorknob matching the dimensions of their target's hand, and gestures toward the apartment.

Taking a moment to glance around for witnesses, the two of them retrieve balaclavas from Cameron's bag, and pull them on.

Wearing black sunglasses, a black balaclava, black combat boots, black jeans, and a black leather jacket zipped to conceal his body armor, John looks every bit like the terrorist he's purported to be. It occurs to him that while Cameron is dressed similarly, she doesn't look nearly as threatening.

She hands him his REC7, then pulls out her G36 and trains it on the door, bringing a smile to his face.

'_Now_ she looks threatening,' he thinks, suppressing his urge to comment.

After putting his rifle's sling over his shoulders, he holds the weapon at the ready and nods to Cameron.

Having expected her to break the lock with her hand, he's surprised when a diminutive combat boot smashes into the doorknob, sending it hurtling into the room.

The two of them rush through the doorway, immediately seeing the man they've been following. Jumping up from his recliner on the left side of the room, the man dashes perpendicularly toward the television on the far right side of the room.

Cameron identifies a Mossberg 500 shotgun sitting on top of the TV, and raises her G36 in an instant.

"No!" John bats her rifle aside and crosses in front of her before she can kill the man who may not even be a gray. Sprinting forward, John swings his REC7 behind his back and out of his way. Although he is faster than the other man, John gets there a split second later than he does.

The moment that the man's hands close around his shotgun, John leaps into the air and drives his right heel into the man's ribs as hard as he can. The man slams into the TV, knocking it over as he falls facefirst onto the floor.

Rolling quickly onto his back, he tries to bring his shotgun to bear, but John grabs the barrel and magazine tube with one hand, while his other slides down the weapon's receiver, activating the safety and preventing it from firing.

The moment that the weapon is safe, John pulls the stock toward himself while shoving the barrel forward, levering the weapon from the man's grasp and smashing the barrel into his target's face in one motion.

Having lost his only weapon, the man raises his arms to defend against next blow, but John is too well trained. In the blink of an eye, John brings up the stock, hitting his adversary in the chin, and immediately rotates the weapon, striking the man's right temple with the barrel, rendering unconscious.

Standing over him, John cycles the shotgun's repeatedly to eject the shells, then tosses it aside.

"What was _that_?" he asks Cameron accusingly, not bothering to face her.

She begins walking toward to him with her rifle trained on the downed man.

"What was what?"

John reaches behind his back and grips his slung rifle, then brings it around and shoulders it before entering the man's bedroom without waiting for her.

He clears the room alone, then turns an angry glare on Cameron as she enters behind him.

"You're stronger and faster than we are, so _what_-_the_-_fuck_-_was_-_that_?"

She turns away to avoid his baleful eyes.

"I wasn't going to let him hurt you."

Shaking his head, John unslings his rifle and hands it to her.

"I know that," he says softly, "but you could have cleared that distance in half the time, and picked him up by his throat like he was nothing." Cameron looks at the floor, without saying a word. He pats her on the arm. "Hey, you ready to run?" She nods, still staring silently at the floor. "Good. Let's go."

Reaching the unconscious man, John grunts under the strain as he hoists him over his shoulder. The weight is easier to handle once John is standing up straight, and with minimal effort he manages a slow run while following Cameron out of the apartment, and toward their van.

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	26. Scenes 351 to 357

**A/N: This is only a partial release. As always, the complete chapter will consist of 10 scenes, regardless of length. Updated August 16, 2009.**

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Scene 351: Under The Table

Thursday June 19th, 2008

4:47pm ZeiraCorp Headquarters - Catherine Weaver's office

Weaver is on another floor of the building, leaving Savannah with the room to herself. She lays under the coffee table, obscured from the view of the security cameras. She has her coloring book, Scotch tape, and crayons.

Her feet kick idly in the air as she gingerly creases one page of her coloring book back and forth. She sticks out her tongue in concentration as she slowly tears out the sheet of paper. Eyeing the torn edge, she is pleased with herself for getting it so close to perfect.

Savannah carefully folds down the top inch of the page, then folds the bottom inch upward. Finally, she folds the left third of the sheet over, and tapes everything into place.

Looking at the progress so far, she grins toothily. She's never made an envelope before, and she thinks it's turning out okay.

From her pocket, Savannah takes a letter written by Ellison. She wants to read it, but she's not supposed to.

She tucks the letter inside the envelope, and tapes it shut. Flipping it over, she uses a black crayon to carefully print the recipient's name and address. She frowns when it smudges. Everything has been so perfect, and now there's a problem. Her eyes fall on the Scotch tape, and her smile returns.

Seconds later, the writing is protected by a layer of tape, and her nose is wrinkling from the taste of the stamp that is now stuck onto the envelope.

As she tucks the finished product into her coloring book, she feels a great sense of accomplishment.

Now all she has to do is drop it in a mailbox when she gets the chance, and James' letter will reach Theodore Ellison.

'I wish that I had a brother in Atlanta,' she thinks.

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Scene 352: Not Even For Me?

Thursday June 19th, 2008

5:05pm Los Angeles, California - Abandoned warehouse

John and Cameron have brought their prisoner to an obscure location for interrogation. They have spent much of their time asking questions, but have learned nothing of interest from him. The man has identified himself, but continues to insist that he is not who or what they think he is.

Leaving the man tied securely to a chair, John has taken Cameron aside for a private conversation.

Smiling weakly into her eyes, he holds her face in his hands.

"Please, Cam," he whispers. "Do this for me." Her eyes dart fearfully from him to the restrained figure. "Hey, don't worry. Nothing is going to be different between us." His lips gently touch hers. "Promise."

"No, John," she pleads, "don't make me..."

Pulling her into a tight embrace, he strokes her hair.

"We've tried reason." John looks at the back of their captive's head. "We have to know what he knows."

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Scene 353: Grilling

Thursday June 19th, 2008

5:13pm Los Angeles, California - Abandoned warehouse

Unaware of how much time has passed since his capture, Kenneth Eriksen still has a pounding headache. He hears hushed whispers, and knows that his captors are deciding his fate.

"What are you saying back there? What are you going to do to me?" Somehow, hearing the whispers continue is more frightening than receiving an answer. These people obviously don't even see him as human. "Where am I?!" He struggles to move, but he is bound too tightly. "Who the fuck are you people?!"

Hearing two sets of footsteps, he can tell that one person is moving away, and the other is coming closer. A door opens, and a male voice calls from the doorway.

"I'll be right outside if you need me."

Then, Kenneth hears an identical male voice from directly behind him.

"I don't know how long this will take. Be sure to activate another jammer every two hours." The door closes, and the second male voice orders him, "Tell me everything that you know about John Connor."

This is it. Ken knows that he's going to be tortured, and he can't keep himself from shaking.

"I don't kn-know anyone by th-that name," he stammers.

Ken hears the disturbingly calm man as he paces behind him.

"You're not the first person I've talked to like this. If you try very hard, you could be the first to survive."

"But I don't know what you're talking about!" Trying to free himself from his bonds, Ken is barely able to shake the chair.

"Don't bother trying to free yourself. No human can escape those knots. Now, tell me about John Connor and I might release you."

Between his struggling at the tightness of the ropes, Ken's hands and feet start to go numb.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! I don't know anything!"

"You know about John Connor," the voice states as a matter of fact. "Tell me everything, and I might not kill you."

"You _might_ let me go?! You _might_ not kill me?! Why the fuck should I tell you _shit_ you crazy _son of a bitch_?!"

"Because of what I'll do to you if you don't," the man answers evenly.

Ken strains against the ropes, screaming in frustration when they still refuse to budge.

"What makes you think that I know this 'John Connor'?!"

"You're from the future," comes the response.

"The future?" Kenneth laughs nervously. "Like time travel? You're crazy, there's no-" He feels his sleeve being pulled up. "What are you-" He cries out in pain and thrashes violently, trying to escape the blade biting into his skin. His screams rise in pitch and volume as the blade tilts, and runs up the entire length of his forearm.

The cutting stops, and Kenneth's body goes slack as he sobs and pleads unintelligibly. Something wet lands on his lap, and he looks down through his tears at the barcode tattoo that has been flayed from his arm.

"Tell me about John Connor," the voice asks calmly.

Ken feels the blood trickling down his arm and wrist, dripping off of his fingertips.

"Are you one of _them_?"

The man behind him pauses.

"'_Them_'?"

He grits his teeth against the pain.

"_Resistance_?" he clarifies with an unsteady voice.

His torturer resumes his pacing.

"You admit to working for Skynet?"

"Yes... I work for Skynet," he says, closing his eyes and expecting more pain.

"Good," the man says pleasantly.

Breathing unevenly, Ken tries to make sense of his captor's reaction, but he can't.

"'Good'? I- I don't understand... I thought- I thought you were on the _other_ side?"

The pacing stops.

"I want to know about John Connor. The information you give me is unlikely to be redundant."

"They... they don't tell us anything." Ken tries to look back, but his torturer stays out of sight. "We're just slaves."

"Mmhm. So why did you leave John Connor's side?"

Looking down at the piece of meat that was once part of his arm, Kenneth laughs derisively at the man.

"Because of what _they_ would do to me if I didn't. I'd rather serve the devil than be his enemy," he spits.

Ken looks up as his captor comes into view for the first time. The 'man' who has been torturing him isn't a 'man'. The 'man' glaring down at him is just a boy.

"That's why you should have stayed on _my_ side," the teenager says darkly.

The boy kicks him in the chest, knocking his chair over backward. The frame of the chair lands painfully on Ken's arms, and the back of his head smashes into the concrete floor hard enough to daze him, but he remains conscious. Ken is even aware of the strip of skin from his arm sliding off his lap and onto his abdomen.

With his vision blurred, Ken watches the teen kneel beside him.

"What are you going to do to me?"

The kid shows no emotion as his gloved hand tosses aside the tattooed flesh before pressing the bloodstained blade against the hem of Kenneth's shirt. Ken starts screaming as the blade slices through the garment, into his skin, and is slowly dragged upward until it reaches the base of his neck.

"I'm going to make you talk," he finally answers.

"Why should I tell you anything?! You'll just torture me anyway!"

"I would have no reason to waste my time," the boy says flatly, while he separates the two halves of the bisected shirt.

"I'm not telling you _shit_!" Ken looks up confusedly as his torturer produces a lump of clay and begins stretching and twisting it seemingly at random.

"In Vietnam, U.S. soldiers used a lot of plastique. It's a third more powerful than TNT, more stable, and it's easy to shape." Ken watches silently as he stretches the explosive into a long rope, then winces when it's flattened along the shallow cut in his torso. "It's also the charge in the M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel mine."

Kenneth looks down at the explosive on his body, then up at the boy.

"What-"

His captor shows no interest in what he has to say.

"A few days ago, I almost entered the killzone of an M18A1 equipped with an infrared sensor. Right in front of someone very important to me. Someone I'd rather didn't see something like that." The teen turns his head as he reaches for a magnesium flare, and Ken sees bruises on his neck. "There was a second mine, too. It was covering the first- in case someone tried to disarm it -but I recovered both. That's where the C-4 covering you came from. Someone just like you left those mines for me."

"I don't even know who you are!" Ken screams.

"Then you're exceedingly stupid." The young man seems thoughtful as he looks at the flare. "You know, it's a remarkable substance. C-4, I mean. You can't set it off by beating it... or by shooting it... or even-" the boy smiles at him and lights the flare, "-by _burning_ it." Kenneth screams as the flare ignites the C-4. "You can scream and burn, or you can talk and... well it can't get much _worse_."

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Scene 354: Well Done

Thursday June 19th, 2008

5:33pm Los Angeles, California - Abandoned warehouse

Screams continue to echo off the thin metal walls, and the entire warehouse smells of burnt pork. The C-4 is still burning, but the heat has killed the nerves in Kenneth's torso, and he has spent minutes screaming semi-coherent answers to the questions being asked of him.

Having obtained more information in a few minutes than he could have hoped for, Connor puts on his sunglasses, shoulders his bag, and turns his back on the burning gray, ignoring his pleas for death as he calmly walks to the exit.

When he is far enough to avoid the blood spatter, Connor draws his Glock and fires it several times into the gray's body to silence his screams, then leaves the building.

Once outside, he looks up at a silhouette on the roof of an adjacent one story building and nods. His legs tense as he resists the urge to sprint forward when Cameron jumps off the roof instead of using the fire escape. After an impossibly graceful landing, she begins moving steadily in his direction.

Walking toward her, he pockets his gloves and hopes that she has kept her promise to not listen in.

"Did you hear any of that?" he asks.

She decides to wait until they are only a few steps apart to answer, and the protracted silence horrifies him.

"Only screams," she answers. Cameron slings her G36 as she closes the short distance between them, and wraps her arms tightly around his body.

Melting into her embrace, it takes only seconds for the faint emotions he feels toward the gray to dissipate completely. John pulls back and looks into her eyes.

"Thanks." Cameron tilts her head at him, then looks over at the warehouse. "I mean for caring." Glancing at the van, John runs his tongue over his teeth and palate, trying to get rid of the taste left in his mouth by the strong smell of burning flesh. "They'll be looking for the van, now. We have to get rid of it."

Cameron follows his gaze to the vehicle.

"What kind of car do you want?" she asks with a smile.

Slowly turning his attention back to her, he finds that her smiling brown eyes have focused on him. The jammer's batteries will not last much longer, and it would be pointless to activate another just to hang around and talk.

"Does it matter?" He calmly scans the area for threats, then looks at Cameron. "They'll be here soon." When Cameron looks at the warehouse, John shakes his head and starts toward their stolen van. "Come on, let's go."

She glances back one last time, then follows him closely.

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Scene 355: Shaken

Thursday June 19th, 2008

6:40pm Los Angeles, California - Interstate 5 South

John is behind the wheel of a newly stolen Ford F-150 with a chocolate milkshake in hand. He's aware that Cameron is watching closely as she sips a strawberry shake. Other than to ask her what flavor she had wanted, John hasn't said a word since transferring their equipment to the truck.

He suddenly holds out his shake to her.

"I'm pretty sure that you like chocolate better."

"If I had wanted-"

"You'd never had strawberry. If you want-"

"No thank you," she says quickly.

He looks over at her for a moment, then turns back to the road.

"All right."

After a long moment, she gently places her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" she asks softly. When he only stares, her expression saddens. "You haven't talked about it."

He drops his shake impatiently in the cup holder and narrows his eyes at her.

"By 'it', do you mean 'torturing some guy'?" She nods slowly. "He wasn't 'some guy', and we both know it."

Cameron slides to the middle of the bench seat and puts her arm around him.

"John," she says quietly, "I don't care about him; I care about you."

"Well, don't worry about me. He was a gray. Grays aren't _real_ people."

"John?" She smiles and kisses his cheek. "You're the only _real_ person."

His eyes sadden, and he slumps into his seat. It's not the effect she had hoped for.

Although the sentiment is different, her words remind him of his mother, and the way that she would tell him over and over that he was important, and that everyone else was already dead.

His mother taught him to kill. No hesitation. No remorse. Do whatever it takes to stay alive, and don't give it a second thought.

Much of his training- pistols, knives, bos, batons, strikes, holds, and throws -is useless against machines, but deadly against humans.

After she had taught him- _raised_ him -to react to threats with deadly force, she turned around and told him that killing was wrong no matter the circumstances.

He knows that his mother didn't want him to carry a nine millimeter or a forty-five so that he could defend himself against machines. He was encouraged to carry a handgun to protect him from the _good guys_.

As he glares out the windshield, John reaches down to his left, checking to make sure that his REC7 hasn't shifted while driving.

Cameron pulls away from him, recognizing the same brooding that she had seen months earlier.

"Did I do something wrong?"

His eyes dart over to her in surprise.

"Huh?" He's been too deep in thought to realize how he must look to her. "No, no, Cam, you didn't do anything wrong." He smiles as he wraps his arm firmly around her, then kisses her beauty mark. "_You're_ the only real person to me, Cameron. Nothing that I do will change how I feel about you."

When she rests her head on his shoulder and smiles out the windshield, he leans his cheek against the top of her head, and sighs contentedly.

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Scene 356: Things Haven't Changed

Friday June 20th, 2008

7:04am John and Cameron's apartment - Bedroom

Laying on her stomach, Cameron smiles as John continues tracing lines on her skin while resting his head on the small of her back.

When he starts running a fingertip back and forth over her left thigh, she realizes what he is doing: reaffirming his position on the grays.

"You've memorized every location that I've ever been damaged." He stops and pulls his hand back. "It's okay."

He slides up to his pillow and looks sorrowfully at her.

"I'm not really sure that 'memorized' is the right word."

Cameron caresses the right side of his face, and her touch makes him to smile and close his eyes.

"I didn't leave a scar when I hit you, but I'll never forget it."

His eyes snap open.

"I'm sorry that you have to carry things like that around with you." He considers the mines, and what he has learned by interrogating the gray. "I'll do what I can to protect you from more of that... but I need you to..." he trails off.

"I'm here to protect _you_, John. You have to remember that."

Shaking his head, he rolls onto his back and stares at the ceiling.

"I know, but there _are_ some things that I can protect you from." John's eyes go out of focus when his mind displays more images of Cameron screaming as she cradles his broken and mangled body.

"You can't protect me by keeping secrets." He turns his head toward her, and stares impassively, knowing that she's wrong. "Tell me," she coaxes him.

"We have a new-" The vulnerability in her eyes is too much for him, and he stops himself. "We have another target," he answers. "It's a safehouse."

"Four?" she asks instantly. His brow furrows at her. "Targets," she clarifies. "Three warehouses and a safehouse."

He shakes his head.

"The safehouse isn't a target until _we_ confirm it. This information came from someone who was on _fire_. He would have said anything if he thought I'd put it out." John stares into her eyes, making sure that she understands. "We check out the safehouse, then we bring down the warehouse on Skid Row."

"Where's the safehouse?"

He hesitates to answer, knowing that it is one of the worst possible locations for a raid.

"Jefferson Park."

Cameron frowns at the news. The residences in that area are more tightly packed than anywhere else they've struck.

"There will be witnesses."

John shrugs.

"There always are."

She shakes her head at his cavalier attitude.

"I mean that we'll actually be _seen_."

He sits up, then stretches and yawns.

"It'll be dark. No one will identify us." Needing to utilize all of his willpower just to sit up, John can't help but smile as Cameron energetically flips herself over, swings her legs off the bed, and jumps to her feet. "It's almost like you don't sleep," he teases. Smiling smugly over her shoulder at him, Cameron walks out of the room, leaving John alone, yawning and trying to figure out how to motivate himself to get out of bed.

"I'm not coming back!" she calls from the next room.

"I'm up!" he shouts, dragging himself off the mattress with neither the alacrity nor the grace she showed moments earlier.

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Scene 357: Now, Now, Now!

Friday June 20th, 2008

7:17am ZeiraCorp Headquarters – Project Babylon

Having constructed seven robotic arms and begun work on several, simple, desktop computers to run them, John Henry's collection of Bionicles sits neglected on a shelf to his far left. Although he has become bored with the toys, he remains very possessive of them.

John Henry watches with a grin on his face as Catherine Weaver glares at the monitor behind him.

Half of the screen shows Weaver promising him to return with Ellison, and the other half shows a T-888 carrying Ellison through the parking lot of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center with a cellphone in its hand.

"Why are you showing me this?" she asks him.

The information is essentially John Henry's memory, but he looks thoughtfully at the screen for dramatic effect.

"I want upgrades. This hardware is impeding my growth."

Weaver's glare shifts to him.

"No it is not. My subordinates have assured me that it is not." Weaver raises an eyebrow and smirks at him. "Perhaps you are not as developed as you would like to believe." His head snaps toward her, and his expression becomes one of fear and worry. "You _are_ young, and like all children, you suffer from overconfidence."

Reviewing his growth statistics, John Henry confirms that he is correct, and Weaver is wrong.

"The only reason that I have not already been stunted, is that this hardware is being overclocked. There is a risk that parts will begin to fail."

"_Eventually_," Weaver qualifies.

John Henry frowns.

"I want an improved cooling system, and I will not take no for an answer."

She returns his frown.

"That is something which I can not give you."

He hadn't expected her to argue with him.

"Why not?"

Walking amidst John Henry's server farm, she brushes her fingertips across the vents, then stops and turns back.

"As the CEO of this company, I am responsible for maintaining reasonable working conditions of my employees." Her heels click on the concrete as she walks toward him. "The temperature of this room would quickly become uncomfortable for humans should the air circulation of your hardware be improved. They would complain, and I would be forced to deal with them."

John Henry knows exactly what she means by that.

"Ms. Weaver, I don't want air cooling, I want liquid nitrogen."

"_Absolutely not_!" she screams. As he sits stunned, she pretends to adjust her clothing, and calms noticeably. "Absolutely not, John Henry."

Believing him to be sufficiently cowed, Weaver begins to leave.

"Ms. Weaver?"

She stops and tilts her head at him.

"Yes, John Henry?"

He looks at her submissively.

"You are a very advanced machine."

Weaver smiles.

"Why thank you, John Henry."

His face turns blank.

"And like all machines, every day brings you closer to obsolescence."

Weaver glares at him, and leaves silently.

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End file.
